Kindling the Flames
by Savanah Rose
Summary: It only took a single spark, a single man, to kindle the flames. His passion became the fire that burned against the Divergent. Who was the man that passed on to Jeanine the idea of hunting the Divergent? And what made him decide they were so dangerous, that he would go to any length to destroy them? Canon to both Divergent by Veronica Roth and Dauntless Gray.
1. Chapter 1

**(1-1-2019)**

 **Happy New Year! I really didn't think it was going to take me this long to get this story ready for publication! The first ten chapters are written and the first six are edited. (Thank you Bahrfamily!) The plan is until the book is finished I'm going to publish one chapter every other Friday. Once I have finished writing the book, I will speed up the publishing schedule.**

 **This story is actually begins before Dauntless Gray. (If you haven't read Dauntless Gray, it is my story of Hana Pedrad, Zeke and Uriah's mother.) The last part of the story will actually overlap with Dauntless Gray.**

 **Kindling the Flames is canon to both my Dauntless Gray world and to Veronica Roth's Divergent world. (To the best of my ability.) Because this story is Pre-Divergent there are a lot of original characters in it. There was a request when I wrote Dauntless Gray list the name and a brief summary of the original characters at the start of each chapter. There are even more original characters in this story (although a few of them will actually come from the Dauntless Gray world!)**

 **I have two ideas on how to handle this. One is to put the characters at the beginning of each chapter. The other is to create a character reference on my profile page. It would list the characters by the first chapter that they appear in. If you have a preference, please leave a review to this chapter letting me know which one you would like better.**

 **Chapter One**

"Ready or not! Here I come!" Ned's voice is louder than the rain on the roof when he finishes counting in the kitchen. I pull back under my oldest brother Alec's bed, like a turtle hiding it its shell. I just discovered I don't want to be under here, and at this same instant, it is too late to move.

I feel trapped under here. I've hidden in much smaller places than this during hide-and-seek, but somehow, under Alec's bed is where I feel cornered. I fight against the rising panic by squeezing my eyes shut so I can't see the red and yellow striped bed spread that made me think this would be a good hiding place that no one could see.

There is no reason to panic, I tell myself. No reason at all.

" _Norton, listen carefully to me." I look up at Father. He is kneeling down so his brown eyes look straight into my mine. "Your uncle Bud came to get your mother and me about something. He and Aunt Alice need us."_

 _I stand up quickly. I like going to Amity to see Aunt Alice and Uncle Bud._

" _No, you aren't coming with us." Father sounds regretful as he places a hand on my shoulder. "Mother and I need you to stay here and be a big boy."_

" _By myself?" I hear my voice tremble. I hope Father doesn't._

" _Only for a little while. Aunt Phyllis will come soon. I know even though you don't wear black and you aren't in Dauntless, that you can be brave and do this for me, can't you?" Father sounds confident in me._

 _He's right. I'm not in Dauntless, the group that is fearless, but I can be brave enough not to let him down. "I can."_

" _That's my boy." Father ruffles my hair. "What don't you stay in your lab under your bed, until Aunt Phyllis gets here? You can pretend that you are inventing something."_

 _I smile and climb under my bed. The blue bedspread hides me._

Blue bedspread? My eyes fly open at the thought. I see the red and yellow stripes and my heart speeds up again. My vision doesn't make any sense. Papa's eyes are green like mine, not brown, and the bedspread was blue. I have no idea where I would get the idea to picture a blue bedspread. I'm not Erudite, the group that wears blue. I'm not a member of the group that is smart.

I wish I was. I know I'm smart. I know that for an Amity child, I am very smart, but I'm not in Erudite. I don't get to wear blue or glasses that make you smart enough that the teacher calls on you for the toughest questions.

"There you are!" Ned, my brother who is six and a year older than me, yells, but I can't see him in my red and yellow prison. He's trying to get me to show myself like I did the last time we played hide and seek. That time he yelled that, and I crawled out from my hiding place in the dirty sheets that were getting ready to be sent to the main laundry, but this time, I don't move.

He is quiet and so am I. Finally, I hear his footsteps leaving the room.

I'm smart. I learn from the past.

* * *

"Good night, Norton." Mama kisses my forehead as she tucks me in.

"I want my rabbit," I tell Mama. She's decided that, now that I'm at the lower-level school where all of the factions go, I'm too old for my stuffed animal, but I'm not ready to let go of it yet.

"Norton…" Mama starts.

I look at her pleadingly. "Please."

Her eyes, brown like Alec's and Ned's, study me and then the rabbit. Smiling ruefully, she shakes her head at me and takes the rabbit from the top of the dresser. "You will quit sleeping with it before you turn sixteen, right?"

Sixteen. That magic age so far away from now when we get to pick our faction and become a member. It's going to be forever before I'm that old. "I promise."

She hands me the rabbit.

I wrap my arms around it, holding it close while I prepare to go to sleep.

"Good night, Norton." Mama kisses my forehead again.

"Why does he sleep with his rabbit?" Ned asks from his bunk on top of mine in our shared room. He never slept with anything that I can remember.

Ignoring him, Mama climbs the first couple steps of the ladder, leans over, and kisses his forehead, too. "Good night, Ned."

* * *

We lie in a circle with our heads together and our bodies coming from a hub like the spokes in a wheel. Papa starts our circle, with Mama next to him and us three boys moving in age order, Alec, Ned and then me, next to Papa.

We look upward at the stars, each of us deep in our own thoughts.

"What do you see, Alec?" Mama asks, breaking the silence.

"I see a bird flying." Alec points up to the stars and points out two stars that create the line for the body and a curve of five lines that form the wings.

"Ned?" Mama asks next.

"I see a pot." He points out four stars that make a box and the three that make a bent handle. "Is there anything left to eat?"

We laugh at him. Mama says Ned is getting ready to grow. He's always hungry these days. "I think there is. We'll go in and check in a little bit. Norton, what about you?"

I take a deep breath. I wasn't looking for animals or cooking utensils. "I didn't find anything. I was just looking at them and wondering."

"What do you wonder?" Papa asks gently.

"I wonder how many stars are there? What are they made of? How far away are they?" I was about to add my next thought when Alec pipes up.

"What are you, some kind of misplaced Erudite?" he asks, wrinkling his nose at me.

Mama sits up. "Ned, Alec, let's see if we have strawberries left for dessert."

My brothers pop up and start running back to the house. I sit up to go with them, but Papa puts a hand on my shoulder, keeping me with him. We sit facing each other quietly, until they are too far away to hear us. "Norton, those are some awfully deep thoughts. Where did they come from?"

I look at the sky, away from Papa, not wanting to meet his eyes. "I don't know. It was just… as I looked at them I tried counting them, and then my mind just started wondering…"

Papa waits, but when he realizes that I don't have any more to say, he responds. "You have to watch your wondering, Norton. Sometimes you don't need to know, you just have to accept that you don't know. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

But I want to know. I want know and understand everything. I'm not happy with not knowing, but I understand both what Alec said and what Papa is trying to tell me. I have to be a good Amity, and a good Amity doesn't ask a bunch of questions. I tip my head back and look at the stars that show me that maybe I don't belong in Amity. "I see a house."

Papa smiles at me. "That's my boy."

* * *

"I'm sorry, Norton. There's been an emergency at the hatchery," Papa tells me calmly. "I have to take you home so I can go by and see what is going on."

I try not to pout. It isn't kind to make Papa feel bad about having to take me home early. It is a big deal to me that there is one Saturday each month that I get a day with Papa without either of my older brothers around. This is my day, MY day to have Papa to myself- no Alec and no Ned. Not even Mama joins us. I'm disappointed, because even though the day is almost over, Papa and I are supposed to catch fireflies together. By the next time it is my turn to spend the day with him, the fireflies will be gone.

Papa's green eyes study me intently. "The fireflies will be gone next time, won't they?"

I nod, trying not to show the tears I can feel trying to gather in my eyes. I'm seven now. I shouldn't be crying.

"Come on." He puts an arm around my shoulder. "Hopefully it's not too bad, and we'll still be able to catch some fireflies, before I promised Mama to have you home in time for bed."

I brighten up and throw my arms around Papa the way I watch Alec and Ned do. Physical affection comes more easily to my older brothers than it does to me. Papa's arms encircle me in return, Holding me tight.

"So, what kind of an emergency do you think it is?" I ask as we climb into the truck that Papa will use to drive us out to the hatchery.

"I'm not really sure." He starts the truck and puts it in gear. "I know we were having problems with one of the incubators on Friday before the end of the day. I hope that's not what it is."

"Why not?" I'm naturally curious. Even though it's not encouraged in Amity, I've learned that as long as I ask questions relating to something the faction does, and not just whatever comes to my mind, Mama and Papa don't mind too much.

"Well," Papa starts, "the incubator is supposed to keep the eggs at the right temperature for them to hatch. If there is a problem with the incubator, it is possible that we would lose the chicks."

"What problems can an incubator have?" I feel my forehead wrinkle as I try to think about what it could be.

Papa knows my thinking face, and oddly, he encourages it. "What do you think could go wrong?"

The rest of the trip to the hatchery goes by fast as we discuss what could have happened, and what Papa will be able to do to fix the problem. Papa puts the truck in park and, reaching over and pulls me into a tight but quick hug. "You remind me of someone."

"Who?" I'm so different from than everyone else in Amity, that I would love to know who I am like.

"I don't know." Papa's voice is sad. "I know that you remind me some of someone, but I just can't remember who she was."

"I remind you of a girl?" I wrinkle my nose, no longer happy with the association.

Papa ruffles my hair. His voice becomes softer with each word until I'm all but sure I imagine the last few. "I don't know. I have the impression it was a girl, but I don't really remember. I just know whoever it was, I miss them very much, and I'm going to miss you."

I wait to see if he has any more to say. "Papa?"

His head jerks to me. His mind has been somewhere else. "Guess we better go see what happened."

We both climb out of the cab and head towards the hatchery. The door opens into a scene of chaos. There are few people in red and yellow and there are several people in matching forest green outfits. I have never seen anything quite like their outfits. They are one piece and zip up the front. One man looks Erudite in his deep navy clothes, but it confuses me since his clothes match the style of the green outfits. "I wasn't expecting this." Papa sounds a little nervous. "I wouldn't have brought you if I had known they would be here."

"Who are they?" I ask curiously. My mind runs through the groups and colors, trying to figure out who is green. Amity, my peaceful faction, the ones who raise everyone's food, is identified by our red and yellow. Erudite, the smartest, our scientists, wear blue. Dauntless, the brave, protectors of the factionless, wear black. Candor, the honest, the law, wear black and white. Abnegation, the selfless, the leaders, wear gray. There is no one who wears green.

"You shouldn't be here. Forget them. Forget I brought you here." Papa looks around wildly until he finds a small cabinet. He opens this door. "Hide in here. Don't come out until I come and get you."

I look through the crack that Papa left me after he closes the doors, hoping that no one sees me, that no one will come close enough to know I am here. Pieces of the conversation float into the small space. I startle at a male voice I haven't heard before, and yet… I have. I know his voice. The same sudden fear that I felt years ago when I was hiding under Alec's bed comes back. I want to burst out and run as far and as fast as I can, but I can't move. Papa told me to stay, and even if he hadn't, I'm frozen in place, unable to move.

I close my eyes tightly, hoping that will keep me from trembling.

 _I press my face against the cold glass, watching the people, small as mice from my vantage point. There is something very wrong with the way they face each other. People wear every color. A man in blue hits a man in black. A small group of people in gray and red, along with others in black and white- there maybe four or five- takes turns striking a light post with sledge hammers. When the post starts to move, they all start to push against it until there is an awful groan of twisting and breaking metal. They jump away, and I watch it gather momentum and fall. People try to scatter away from it, but at least one person is trapped beneath it._

 _A shot rings out. I watch someone fall down. There is another crack of a weapon. Another person falls. I scamper over to my bed and grab the stuffed yellow rabbit that Aunt Alice and Uncle Bud gave me for my birthday. Hugging it tight, I find myself hoping that either Aunt Phyllis or Father and Mother come home soon._

 _I hear the heavy stomping of boots coming closer. Father told me to stay under my bed until Aunt Phyllis gets here._

 _I quietly scamper to my bed and crawl underneath it, curling myself up in my robe that I use as my lab coat when I am playing._

" _Phyllis!" a woman calls out. There is no response. "Phyllis!"_

 _I hear two sets of footsteps searching our apartment. "She isn't here," a man's voice I have never heard before announces._

" _What happened to her? She said she was on her way! They left the child in his bedroom." A familiar woman's voice filters through. It's not Aunt Phyllis, but I know her._

 _The bedspread and sheets move above me. "He's not here," the unknown man says._

" _He has to be here!" The woman sounds frantic. She sounds a little like Mama_ _when Ned was hiding in the apple orchard and she couldn't find him. "I was here when he told him to wait here for Phyllis! My sister-in-law was dying. My brother-in-law is dead. I promised her! He has to be here!"_

" _Could Phyllis have picked him up and taken him to her place?" the man checks._

" _I don't know, maybe."_

 _I'm supposed to wait here for Aunt Phyllis to come. I shift so I can cover my head with my lab coat; that way they can't see me._

 _I shouldn't have moved. She must have seen the movement or something, because she bends over and sees me under there. Her brown eyes close and I hear her exhale loudly. "He's down here. He's safe." Her eyes open and she looks at me. "Norton."_

"Norton!" I start at the sound of Papa's low urgent voice. I must have fallen asleep and dreamed the man's voice I heard today, into it.

I try to open the door, but he is kneeling next to it, and has it wedged closed with his body. "I'm sorry, son. The incubator failed. We have to dispose of all the eggs that will never hatch. It won't be too much longer, but you have to stay in here."

"Ok." I whisper back, afraid to say much more.

Papa finishes tying his shoe, picks up a basket, and stands. "We can put the eggs in here."

"Be very careful where you hide the evidence that the incubator went out. With over a hundred eggs in it, we couldn't let you lose that much food, but no one outside of this room can know about us." The man's voice makes me shiver. He really does sound just like the man in my dream.

"I know. We'll be careful with what we do with them," Papa assures him.

"Good. You know what must happen to anyone who would find out." The man's tone is cold, and I draw back further into my cupboard hiding place.

Papa's voice is weary. "Of course, I know. We won't let anyone find out who shouldn't know."

* * *

"Firefly!" I can't help but exclaim when I see the first one flashing brightly against the dimming night sky.

Papa starts; his mind has been somewhere else ever since we left the hatchery. He looks around, and then pulls over the truck, "Your fireflies are out, and this is as good a spot as any. Let's see how many we can catch."

We exit the truck, and I run towards the closest blinking light, hoping to reach it before it stops blinking. I don't make it, but the sun isn't down too far. I can see its dark body silhouetted against a navy sky. I move closer, ready to cup my hands around it to capture it. It flies away before I do, but it doesn't matter. The first lightening bug is joined by a second and a third. I know that soon there will be even more joining them. One flashes by my shoulder. I spin and catch it. Proud of myself, I feel the tickle of its feet walking across my hand as I take it to show Papa.

Papa leans against the truck. Normally he would join me in catching them, but tonight he just watches me. "What do you have?"

I open my hands to show Papa, but as soon as the cooling breeze touches the firefly, he must realize that he is free. He winks good-bye to me and flies back off to join his friends. "I had a firefly."

Smiling, Papa puts a hand on my shoulder; then he squats so he is my height and his green eyes are level with mine. "Norton, we need to talk about what happened."

"Okay." I bite the inside of my cheek to make sure Papa doesn't realize how scared I was.

He takes a deep breath before he speaks. "Son, there are many secrets that Amity keeps. What you saw tonight was part of one of them. It's a pretty big one, too. You can't tell anyone, not Alec or Ned, not even Mama, what you saw tonight."

I swallow hard, "Why not?"

"Because no one outside of those of us who were there tonight will ever know that the incubator completely gave out today and that all the chicks died days before they were supposed to hatch. Those people who helped us replace them, they aren't from our city. They help us, but they shouldn't have been here. You shouldn't know they were here. Do you understand?" Papa look earnestly at me.

I don't understand, not completely. How can anyone survive outside of our city, let alone help us? But I nod, because I know that's what Papa wants me to do. Then I ask the one question that has been bothering me, even if I'm not sure I want to know the answer. "Papa, what would he have done to me if he had seen me?"

Papa rubs his hand across his jawline a couple of times before he finally speaks. "It doesn't matter. It was my fault that you were there. I would have protected you. I wouldn't have let him do it. Don't worry about it. Now let's go see who can be the first to collect three fireflies."

Papa takes off with long strides towards one that is flashing just a little ways away, but I don't try to beat him to it, or to find one on my own. I'm too busy wondering if the man would have done.

It scares me that Papa won't tell me.

* * *

"What are you working on?"

I jump, closing my math book at the sound of the voice of a girl in my grade. I look up and see one of the Erudite girls from a different class standing in front of me. She has the blackest hair I've even seen, braided in pigtails. Her eyes are dark brown and have a curious slope to the edges. I quickly tell her, "I didn't finish my math questions, so Mrs. Markham told me that I had to finish them before I can play."

She looks older than our nine years when she puts her fists on her hips and tilts her head to one side. "Either your teacher gave you a different assignment than any of the other teachers gave, or you're lying."

"Funny, I thought you were wearing blue, not black and white." I throw out the Erudite faction color that she wears and the Candor colors, that she doesn't wear.

I'm pretty sure if she was from Amity, she would playfully stick her tongue out at me right now, but she's Erudite, so she can't do that. "The teachers always give the same assignment, and you aren't working on the questions assigned to the class. You're working on the assigned bonus questions. Erudite are the only ones who do those questions."

"You must have seen it wrong," I lie. My work was finished before we left class yesterday, but since I would rather do the bonus questions than play with the other Amity at recess, I hid the paper in the back of my book, and told my teacher I wasn't finished. I'll turn it into Mrs. Markham when we get back inside, minus the bonus questions that I'm really working on. The girl is right, no one else from Amity will do those questions, so as far as they all know, I didn't do them either.

"Suit yourself, but problem twenty-seven, which is a bonus question, is wrong. You forgot to reduce your fraction." She turns on her heel and leaves me alone again.

I check to make sure no one else is around before I reopen my math book. I let out an angry puff of breath, mad at both her and myself.

She's right, two fourths is the same as one half. I correct the fraction as the teachers call us back inside. I find my hiding point in the back of the book and trade out yesterday's assignment with the bonus work. I pause only long enough to erase one of the fractions and change it back to a fraction that could be reduced. That will give me a wrong answer, and that will help me hide from the teacher the fact that I'm pretty sure I have a hundred percent.

Amity don't get one hundred on math homework.

* * *

Summer and Autumn, the twelve-year-old twins from Amity in my class, are playing a hand game in the library. Their hands move faster and faster, clapping and slapping in a complicated series of moves that only the two of them can completely follow.

"I have a theory," Delilah says in an exaggerated whisper. "Erudite has developed robots that can pass as human."

I laugh out loud. It's not something I do often. I try to make sure I laugh and smile like everyone else does, but truthfully, most of what everyone finds funny, I find silly and childish. But I don't want to stand out, so I hide the way I normally feel and fake a laugh. The laugh right now is genuine, as I picture Erudite scientist creating Amity twins. If we were home in Amity, it would be no big deal, but we are in the library, and if there is one thing that Mrs. Dorn, the Erudite librarian, won't allow in her library is unnecessary- to her thinking- laughter.

"Norton!" She has the amazing ability to sound both sharp and loud while still whispering.

Delilah winks at me. Mrs. Dorn has red hair with touches of silver highlights that are probably gray hairs, and she looks over her small rectangular glasses to see children, but through them to read books, a sign they are real. She has been an upper level librarian long enough not to get too mad at Amity children for making noise. It happens everywhere, and not even Mrs. Barton, the school principal, can stop it.

"What is your study hour?" Mrs. Dorn demands in stern tones.

"Next hour," I answer quickly.

"Good." Her tone softens. She pulls out her pad. "Who is your teacher?"

"Mr. Staggs."

"Very well." She hands me the completed note. "You will give this to him and then report to me."

I glance at the note and look up at her in shock. "A week?"

"Yes, you will spend the next week with me, Norton, learning the proper behavior for a library. I doubt you will find that very funny."

* * *

"These are topics that I have been asked to gather research material on." Mrs. Dorn hands me a paper with a list of subjects on it. "I want you to see what you can find for each of them."

"All of them?" I ask. The list has ten different topics on it. That will be two a day.

"Work on it for the next five days. We'll see how far you get," Mrs. Dorn says primly.

I try to keep from groaning. This is going to be a lot of work.

The first topic on the list is setting up hydroponics. I head straight to 635. I know the number by heart since hydroponics is one of the few topics I can read about without anyone wondering why.

* * *

Mrs. Dorn closes the last book I gathered for the astronomy unit. She pulls her glasses off and lets them fall by their chain. "You did an excellent job." She moves a few books off the top of the astronomy books until she finds the one she is looking for. "Why did you include this one?"

I look over the title of the book. It's a book on mythology. I shift awkwardly. I wasn't sure if I should include that one. "Many of the constellations were named after mythological characters. I didn't know if they would be covering that or not, so I included it."

"I'm glad you included it." The smile on Mrs. Dorn's face is very self-satisfied. She looks me over, like she is trying to decide something, before she continues talking. "You like learning, don't you, Norton?"

I open up my mouth to deny it. I'm Amity. I don't like learning.

"Never mind, don't answer that. I know some books that are… appropriate for an Amity to be reading and are also very informative." She stands and motions for me to follow her. She doesn't stop until she gets to the rack of books to be shelved. She looks over the titles, then pulls one out and puts it on the empty bottom shelf at the very end. "You'll always be able to find at least one of them here."

"You are going be a teenager tomorrow." Mama smiles reminiscently at me. "Ned moved into Alec's room last year when Alec became a member and moved out. He was thirteen, and we got rid of his things from when he was younger. I think it's time that we went through your things, too."

I think of the things that I have hidden away in my room: the interesting rocks stashed in some old shoes; my insect collection under my bed. "But…" I start, not sure how to explain that she can't just spring this on me without me having a chance to hide my treasures better.

Mama looks pointedly at the yellow rabbit that sleeps on my nightstand, watching over me. "Norton, there isn't much, but there are just a few things that I think you have out grown."

I feel relief that she doesn't know about all the hidden things that would tell her I'm not the perfectly happy Amity boy that she thinks I am. She isn't looking for things that are hidden, she's looking for the remnants my childhood that are in plain sight.

"The day after tomorrow, we're going through this room," she says with determination.

* * *

 _I hold on tight to the yellow rabbit from my bed. I sit on Papa's lap, surrounded by the whole family. We are in the large green house that was designed to demonstrate hydroponics. The large tree in the front of the room spreads out its limbs, covering all of us with its protection. The room is crowded, like it is Visiting Day. Everyone but me wears bright reds and yellows. I wear a sky-blue button down top and blue jeans. Everyone is more subdued than normal. The adults talk in hushed tones. The kids don't run around playing games, but cling to their parents. People cry. Mama cries. Papa fights tears. "I shouldn't have gone to tell them," he mutters over and over again. "I shouldn't have gone to tell them."_

 _Mama puts one arm around him. "They wanted to know."_

" _But if I hadn't told them…" Papa doesn't finish his sentence._

" _Do you really think it would have changed any of this? They might not have been with us, but when they realized what was going on, they still would have joined. You know that, and we wouldn't have known what happened. I wouldn't have found…" Mama leans in and kisses my head but doesn't finish her sentence._

 _Papa holds me so tightly that I have problems breathing, and I feel moisture from his cheek. Papa is crying? "You're right."_

" _Bud, Alice, Alec and Ned Bush. And Norton." We all stand up. Mama takes Alec and Ned by the hand, but even though I'm only a year younger than Ned, Papa carries me and my stuffed rabbit that I clutch tightly._

 _We are led into a smaller room, with chairs for all of us, but Papa doesn't put me down in my chair. He continues to hold me._

 _A woman in a navy outfit that zips up the front comes in with another woman who wears a matching outfit in forest green. The lady in green carries a tray with five vials of liquid. "We have a lot of ground to cover today. Let's get started. This is a vaccine against an airborne illness that everyone was exposed to today," the lady in navy says in a clipped tone as she passes out the vials to each of us._

 _Papa takes two of the vials and hands one to me._

 _There is a commotion in the other room. The lady in navy turns to the lady in green. "Check on that."_

" _Everyone needs to drink so that they don't get sick," the lady in navy continues._

" _They are here to cut down the tree!" I hear the voice of the lady in green yelling from the other room._

 _The lady in navy hurries out to see what is happening._

 _They didn't give us a vaccine for my rabbit. I had better share. I hold my vaccine up to my rabbit's mouth and tip it, not enough to really give the rabbit any, just enough to pretend. Except Alec bumps into me and most of my vaccine spills on my rabbit. I wrap my hand around the vial hoping that no one notices that any of it is missing._

 _The lady in green comes back. "Go on ahead and drink all of it."_

 _Guiltily, I drink mine instead of telling them that I spilled it. As long as I don't get sick, no one is ever going to know that I didn't drink it all._

I sit up straight in bed. My heart is pounding. What was that about?I look at my yellow rabbit staring at me from my nightstand. He is visible in a shaft of moonlight. It must have something to do with the fact that my rabbit is going away tomorrow. I'm pretty sure Mama isn't going to let me keep it when we clean my room.

I look at my worn-out rabbit for a minute, suddenly desperate to figure out a way to keep him, but if he disappears, Mama will ask about him. I reach out for him. At first, I just stare into his eyes, then I cuddle him close. I know I'm thirteen, and I haven't slept with it in years, but after that dream… I need him close.

"What are you reading now?" Alec asks me while we wait for our meeting to start.

I show him the front of my book on bees. It's the most recent one that Mrs. Dorn left me. "It's about bees."

Alec gives me a hard look. This is his first meeting since Initiation and I suddenly wonder why he's still sitting with the family instead of with his friends. "You read way too much."

I give him a noncommittal one-shoulder shrug. "I'm not sure what I want to do when I'm a member."

Alec pulls the book out of my hand and looks over it. "Wouldn't it be better to actually get out there and try things, rather than just read about them?"

"How much time do you think I have? I read books, find things that look interesting, volunteer to help there during my free time in the summer to learn more about them. I don't have time to try out everything." I take my book back.

Herman, the current spokesperson for Amity, stands near the sapling in the center for the room. The tree is about ten feet tall. The roots are being trained with rods so the right amount of the root is in the water. At some point in time the tree will be big enough to cover this room, and people will be able to stand on those roots, but that will be generations from now.

* * *

Mrs. Dorn, the school librarian walks up to where I am looking at the gardening books. Her dark strawberry blonde is in low bun at the nape of her neck. Her blue eyes smile at me. She isn't wearing her reading glasses, but they hang around her neck on their chain. "I have some old books that are being removed from circulation. Anyone who wants them will be able to pick out two to keep."

I try hard to look disinterested. Amity don't care if there are books available to take home. Erudite children do. I try so hard to hide the fact that I am smart. Maybe even as smart as an Erudite child. It works most of the time. No one except a very few people, like Mrs. Dorn, notice that I am.

"They are on the counter. I will let the rest of the class know ten minutes before class time is over." She walks away from the counter leaving me alone with the thing I actually love the most.

Books.

I look at the clock. I have almost five minutes to pour over the titles and grab a couple that look interesting. Hopefully, no one is watching me. I take a book on Astronomy and another one on geometry. I'm about to leave the rest of them there when I see one that I have longed to check out, but I could never find the courage to. A book on anatomy. My hand caresses the cover as I decide which book I am going to trade out for it.

Mrs. Dorn is suddenly there. She takes the anatomy and places it inside a drawer. She winks at me with one of her blue eyes, "You can only take two a day."

It takes everything that I have not to grin. The anatomy book will be mine as well, as soon as it is safe to bring it home. I smile at her and walk away, keeping the two books that I currently have, hidden in my book bag, while anticipating the third that she is keeping for me.

At home, I put the astronomy book in with my underwear and the geometry book under my mattress. I fervently hope that no one finds them.

It would be hard to explain what an Amity boy is doing with such Erudite books.

* * *

When I'm sure everyone is asleep, I crawl out of my bed, and sneak out of the room. I creep through the house and out the kitchen door. Two weeks ago, Mrs. Sharp, the science teacher for the fifteen-year-olds, pulled the Erudite kids to the front of the room, which happens to be where I sit. She gave them an extra assignment. For the next month, they are supposed to draw a picture of what the moon looks like and where it is in the sky at the same time every night.

I longed to know what they are learning and decided at that time to find out. Every night since then, I have gotten up and snuck out of the house to check the moon. Our house is too near the trees, so I found a spot at the edge of the trees with a mostly unobstructed view on the night sky. I lean over to pull out my note book from the rock I hide it under each night, when suddenly it sounds like Ned caught me sneaking out, and he woke up our parents to come find me.

Worried, I pull back into the woods and wait anxiously to see who is coming.

When I peek out, I am surprised by what I see. There are four people in Dauntless Black escorting two Abnegations in their identical gray outfits. "We will take you to the line between Amity and the outside world, but you will have to continue on from there by yourself," one of the men in black, the one with the purple and blue hair, tells them.

"Of course." The taller of the Abnegation responds with a head bob. The moon comes out from behind a cloud, and I realize it is one of the council members talking. "You will be waiting at the line for us since this is a quick meeting to exchange information with the representatives. We won't be gone more than an hour."

"We have been told to wait, right where you leave us, until you return so we can walk you back," another man in black responds. A shaft of moonlight glints off the silver rings lining his ear.

They walk past, out of my view. I hide until they are long gone before I go out and make my observations for the night.

As I head home, I replay their conversation in my head. Abnegation are going into the outside world, the world that is beyond the borders of Amity. What will they find there? Who will they find there? Do they meet with the people in the strange navy and forest green matching outfits?

I wish I knew the answers, but the answer to this, and so many of my questions can only lie in one place… Erudite.

* * *

"Bud, what are you doing here?" Mama's voice is gentle and low enough that it shouldn't wake me, but I hear it, so maybe I wasn't asleep.

"Saying good-bye." Papa's voice matches hers.

There is a rustle of clothing. I picture Mama moving closer to Papa. "I know tomorrow is his choosing day, but you didn't do this with Alec or Ned, did you?"

"You're right, I didn't." Papa sounds wistful. "Alice, does Norton ever make you think of someone? Do you ever find yourself thinking he reminds you of someone we used to know, but you can't find any exact memory of the person? I don't even know their name."

Mama pauses before answering, "Once in a while."

"Whoever it was, they left, and I feel like tomorrow, he will, too. It almost feels like we've been hiding him his whole life and it's time for him to emerge from here. Like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon, our boy is about to fly away."


	2. Chapter 2

**(1/18/2019)**

 **Thank you to jvoosen, BK2U, DarkWynd, Shiori-d and Sunny2Rain for your reviews. I appreciated you letting me know what you thought of the first chapter. I know it was a long one! Shiori mentioned that it was a little confusing. I was afraid of that, but please hang in there! Norton's visions will be explained. I promise. Jvoosen was the only one who mentioned a preference for character reminders and although she mentioned my first choice (putting a list on my profile), I'm going to do it the way I did it before. I realized that what you need to remember about characters will change through the story. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I'm going to continue to post the reminders at the beginning of the chapters.**

 **And of course, a thank you also goes to Bahrfamily for acting as Beta yet again!**

 **Also, I'm going to add the date at the end of any author's notes. That way I can keep track of exactly when chapters were published.**

 **Oh! And if you've read Dauntless Gray /The Blackest Shade of Gray you know I enjoy putting in cameos! They are a little different this time. For example: you won't get to see Will, since this story (mostly) takes place before he was born, but Will was raised Erudite, so don't be surprised if you get to meet an ancestor of his, or any of the other Divergent (or Dauntless Gray) characters who have Erudite backgrounds. If you think you have found one, leave me a review and let me know! I'll be happy to let you know if you are right or not!**

 **Characters-**

 **Papa and** **Mama- Norton's parents (from Amity)**

 **Alec and Ned- Norton's older brothers (both stayed in Amity)**

 **Mrs. Dorn- Librarian from Norton's school days. She figured out that he had an Erudite mind and encouraged him in her own way.**

 **Chapter Two-**

We walk as a family to the semi-circle that I will stand in with the other initiates. Alec and Ned keep their good-byes short. They both stayed in Amity, and they seem to take it for granted that I will follow their example. Mama is next. She holds me so tight that I wonder if last night was real, instead of the dream I have tried to convince myself it was. It makes me think that she and Papa really did watch me sleep last night. Papa's good-bye clinches it. When he holds my shoulders, he looks deeply into my eyes, our matching green eyes, memorizing me, then he hugs me tightly. He whispers two words in my ear, and I am confident that last night was not a dream. His "Good luck," convinces me that he really did tell me good-bye last night.

It helps. I would have left anyway, but those words give me permission to go. They let me know that he understands that this has nothing to do with him, or Mama, or Alec, or Ned. This has to do with me, and who I am on the inside.

When they call my name and it is my turn, I am able to take my knife confidently. My blood doesn't fall on the dirt of Amity like Papa's, Mama's, Alec's and Ned's did. Mine falls on the water of Erudite, but at some time in the past there was someone else who did this. This person that Papa says I remind him of did this too. I can feel it. I just wonder who it was.

It is logical that the Erudite don't waste any time and start initiation as soon as possible. There is a bus waiting at the curb for the Erudite initiates. We file in and each take a seat, facing forward. As soon as the bus starts, screens at the front of the bus flicker to life. Donovan, the leader of Erudite, is on them. "Is that Donovan?" A girl with shoulder-length brown hair and blue-gray eyes turns around in her seat and looks at the girl behind her. "It looks like a younger version of him."

I look at the man on the screen. The girl is right. The last time I saw a picture of Donovan, his hair was more of a salt and pepper color than the dark brown it is on the screen. There are more wrinkles around his eyes now, and if I had to guess, the glasses he wears in the video don't have a prescription, because I'm pretty sure I've seen bifocal lines in the glasses he wears now.

The other girl laughs and tosses a lock of impossibly straight black hair over her shoulder. Her dark brown eyes crinkle at the edges as she smiles. There is a hint of laughter in her voice as she responds. "Marion, do you really think it is logical for Donovan to redo the video every year? I'm sure he sees it as a waste of time."

" _It's a waste of time."_ A wisp of a memory starts, but it dissipates just as fast.

"Marion! Charlotte!" A man with dark hair with gray at his temples and brown eyes that slant at the ends looks at them over the small framed glasses perched on the tip of his nose and speaks sharply from the front of the bus.

Instantly, both girls are facing forward, with their full attention to the screens.

"We have a very important message for all of you to listen to while we travel the approximately ten minutes to Erudite headquarters."

"Welcome to Erudite! I am Donovan, the leader of our Faction. Let me be the first to welcome you to the faction of the intelligent, Erudite. Congratulations on being smart enough to realize the importance of your mind." There is a pause, as if this is an Erudite version of a joke, and Donovan waits in case anyone decides to laugh. "We have provided you with the best mentors possible. I will give them a minute to introduce themselves." Donovan pauses again here.

The man who spoke to Marion and Charlotte stands up first. "My name is Graham. I have been an initiation mentor for thirty years now. I am currently the lead mentor. This is Conroy." A younger man, probably in his thirties, with red hair and wire-rimmed glasses framing green eyes stands and nods. "And this is Sage." A woman in her twenties with kinky black hair, dark skin, high cheek bones and soft brown almond shaped eyes surrounded by round blue frames stands as well. "There will be other mentors who will be around to help us based on their specialties, but the three of us will be here every day. We will be assigning a primary mentor to each of you at breakfast tomorrow."

Donovan begins again. "If you need anything please, speak to your mentors; they will make sure the right person is aware of your issue and gets it resolved for you. Please do not try to find the person who will take care of it for you, but rely on your resources, as that is the most efficient way to take care of it. I will take the time to meet each of you at the end of training, as we work out your job assignments. I look forward to meeting with each of you who pass initiation at that time."

Graham steps forward again. "When we get to headquarters, we will be going straight to classroom A. If you are unaware of where this is, please follow closely to those who do. We have much to do. There isn't time for anyone to get lost. Your name will be on top of your computer. Please go straight to your computer. Your first test will begin as soon as everyone is in the room."

With that, the bus stops in front of the headquarters and the doors open. We exit the bus in perfect order, filing off from the front of the bus to the back. It's not just the colors that announce who is Erudite-born and who has transferred here. The Erudite know each other. They walk in pairs or groups of threes and talk reverently as they lead the way for the rest of us through the glass doors and into the Erudite library. I look around as wide-eyed as a child on his birthday at the number of books and computer terminals. I think this building has more than ten times the number books the upper level school has. My mind spins. I can read these books. I can check out these books. No one is going to look at me oddly if I carry one of these books conspicuously.

"Where are you going?" a boy in blue asks me. He has black hair and eyes that slant like Charlotte's.

It's only when he speaks that I realize I have started to veer off course and I'm headed towards the books.

"I know they are tempting, but we can't actually check anything out unrelated to initiation, until we are members," he sounds as disappointed in telling me that as I am in hearing it. "I'm Ian."

"Norton. Why can't we check anything out?" I can't keep myself from asking.

"We had to turn in any books that we had checked out yesterday. That way no one can take a book to another faction with them. Then they told us we can't check out any book not related to initiation until we are members. Evidently, it happens from time to time that people don't make it through initiation, and they don't want to end up losing books if someone leaves during initiation," Ian explains as we walk through to a series of classrooms.

I give a longing look at the books as we pass on our way to the classroom. I tell myself that even if we can't check out the books today, I'll be learning, and soon I'll be able to start reading my way through them all.

When we walk into classroom A, I look around. There is a computer on each desk, plenty of natural light, and the room is full of serious students. This is nothing like the schools where the Factions mix and there are always students who would rather play around or figure out how to get out of work. We all go straight to the computer that has our name and sit quietly, waiting for Graham to start. "The first thing will we do today is take your entry level IQ test. This will give us your baseline for your IQ. Your IQ can vary naturally, we will compare this one to the one that counts, the one we do at the end of initiation. This will be very important to you because your ranking in your class comes from this. The jobs that are open to you will depend on three things: your final IQ test, which will be given on the last day of initiation; your personal project that you will do during training; and any special aptitude that we discover during your classes. You may start your test now."

I am frozen for a moment, looking at my screen. This doesn't seem fair. The Erudite kids have done the extra credit and summer school. They have been groomed for this their entire lives. I take a deep breath and push those thoughts out of my mind. I can't let myself be distracted by those thoughts while I take the test.

* * *

"You ask him!" I hear a familiar female voice whisper loudly behind the table where I'm studying in the library. Tomorrow there is a big test on mathematics; the test is designed to let them know what we know and it will cover everything from addition to calculus.

"No! I couldn't do that. You ask him!" The second voice I recognize as Charlotte.

"I agree with Marion. It was your idea." The male voice is one of my roommates, Ian.

"But I don't know him. You're his roommate. You ask him," Charlotte tries.

Patrick, another one of the Erudite born initiates, studies at the table beyond me. I try to concentrate on the geometry formulas for tomorrow's test, but I find myself wondering why Charlotte doesn't know Patrick. The Erudite-born initiates seem to be a very tight group. None of them have ventured to let the transfers into their cliques.

"You were the one who mentioned adding him. What's the big deal about asking him?" Marion sounds puzzled.

"I don't know him!" Charlotte protests again.

"Go on!" I can picture Marion giving Charlotte a playful push in the direction Patrick or maybe another one of my Erudite-born roommates. Marion's cheerful, almost playful attitude often seems like it belongs more in Amity, where I came from, than in Erudite, where I am.

"Norton?" It surprises me when I hear Charlotte's voice say my name. I didn't even know that she knew my name. "A few of us are studying for tomorrow's test, kind of a study group. Would you like to join us?"

I gape at her for a moment, then stammer. "I…I… Yeah, I mean, yes, I'd like to."

She looks relieved. "Great! Grab your books and turn your chair around. We're at the table behind you."

* * *

Blueberries. I fish the next one out of my yogurt, adding it to the small pyramid I have going of the horrid stuff and wonder what it is about Erudite that makes them feel the need to ruin yogurt by putting blueberries in it.

A tray thumps across from me. "You know, Norton, _those blueberries are good for you_."

 _I answer without looking up. "I don't like the taste of blueberries."_

" _They are good for your heart, Norton. You really should eat them."_ I hear her voice both in childish tones, and in her beautiful adult voice. I freeze, picturing her for the first time in braided black pigtails. Round navy frames making her twinkling brown eyes with their crinkled corners look bigger.

"Norton?" Ian's voice breaks through the fog of memories.

I blink twice and look up at him. "Yes."

"Where were you at?" Ian sits down next to me. I look across the table and see Marion and Charlotte sitting across from us. All of them look a little concerned.

How do I tell them I had a vision of Charlotte as a child telling me the same thing? I've never told anyone, not even Papa, about the weird visions I have from time to time. In Amity, I would have heard that I have an overactive imagination, and I need to go outside and play more. In Erudite, they will probably kick me out.

My mind works quickly trying to come up with a plausible excuse. "My mother used to tell me that." It's the truth.

Charlotte, who is seated across from me, leans over and takes my spoon from me. In silence, I watch her fill my spoon with the yogurt, pick up one blueberry and push it into the middle of the yogurt. Then with a beguiling smile, she lifts the spoon to my mouth. Unthinkingly I open my mouth, and she feeds me the yogurt. "That's a good boy."

Everyone at the table laughs. I separate out the blueberry and swallow just the yogurt, then dap my mouth with my napkin up to my mouth, as I discretely spit the blueberry into it.

Just like I used to with Mama.

* * *

Today's meeting with our mentor is to figure out what our research project will be. I am the first of my new friends to meet with our mentor. I walk out of Graham's office and sit with the rest of my Erudite friends. Somehow, I ended up being the only one of our group with Graham as a mentor. The rest of them have either Sage or Conroy.

"So, what do you think of Graham?" Marion asks when I sit down.

I look over my shoulder at his office. The next initiate is in there with him, and the door is closed. "He's a little intimidating."

"Really?" Charlotte crinkles her nose and gives a little laugh.

I look at her, puzzled. "You and Marion turned around and paid attention quick enough when he got onto you in the bus. You don't find him a little intimidating?"

Marion's blue eyes twinkle. "Well… I don't know that intimidating is the right word. He just happens to be friends with my parents, and even though I'm not under their roof any more…"

"I can understand that." I think of Mama and Papa, wondering if they will come on Visiting Day. It's only a couple of days away.

"What did you come up with for a project?" Ian asks.

"It was tough," I admit, "So many of them end up involving Amity and we had to eliminate all of those."

"What do you have against Amity?" Patrick asks curiously.

I pull off the glasses that I wear since coming to Erudite and chew nervously on the one of the arms. Evidently Patrick doesn't remember where I came from. Since I am the only transfer who has been accepted into any of the Erudite groups, I really don't want to remind my friends that I'm not from here, but I don't know how else to explain it except for the truth. "Faction before blood," I answer, "The rest of my family- parents, older brothers - are all in Amity. Graham feels that if I end up in a job that interacts with Amity, it won't be too bad, but I can't do a project that will put me in contact with the faction."

* * *

"How's the research coming?" Charlotte asks in a whisper as she sits next to me in the library.

"I'm finding a lot," I tell her enthusiastically.

Charlotte smiles at me. "That's good."

I take a deep breath. "Maybe, maybe not. There's a lot of information to go through."

She puts a hand on my shoulder. "You can do it. You seem to be good at finding and sifting through information and finding what is important in it."

I feel her touch all through my body and look up at her. "Thanks. I appreciate the vote of confidence. I wasn't encouraged as a kid to do any extra studying."

A sour-looking Ian joins us.

"You weren't encouraged **as a child** ," Charlotte's laugh is friendly, not condescending. "A kid is a baby goat."

* * *

I was one of the first people finished with the timed IQ test. As I wait for my meeting with Donovan, I feel pretty confident that this is a good sign. I have worked hard and led my initiate group during a couple of the classes that we took together, but in the end, this is the only test that truly matters. The other tests were only to show them what we know and what we have an aptitude for. We will get our results when we each get our turn to talk to Donovan. It will be a short but important meeting. We will discuss our IQ, our aptitude as shown by our tests, and our independent research project. I can't wait for him to see my results. I have spent so many years hiding, that I can't wait to be allowed- no encouraged to let my genius shine through. I will finally get a chance to see and show how intelligent I am. I will be ushered into Donovan's inter sanctum. He will praise my brilliance and reward me with a prestigious job. I am confident, possibly even cocky when I walk into his office. I stand in front of his desk for what feel like an eternity while he sits behind his desk, shuffling through his papers. When he finally looks up, he stares at me almost without seeing me, over the top of his glasses. "Norton?"

"Yes, sir," I answer quickly.

He motions to the chair in front of the desk. "You came from Amity."

"Yes, sir." I sit on the edge of my chair. I want to make sure he knows I am attentive to every word he says.

"What made you decide to transfer to Erudite?" He leans back in his chair.

My world is shattered. He has my life in front of him, and he has to **ask** why I came to Erudite. For the first time, I question myself. For the first time, I wonder if I am really as smart as I think I am. "I… I… I've always learned easily." I stammer out my response, like someone who doesn't really know.

Donovan riffles through the paperwork until he finds the page he's trying to find. He looks intently at the paper and then at me with the same piercing gaze. "You never excelled in any of your classes. Your scores all through school were average or just above average. Your grades would not have been acceptable for any of my Erudite students. If you had been born in Erudite… I would have encouraged you to transfer somewhere else."

"That was intentional! If I had been born Erudite, I would have been one of the top students!" I explode. All of those years of carefully hiding, of not finishing homework when I already understood and was bored with it, of going back over a test to change answers to keep my grade from being too high, are going to count against me here. That isn't fair. Can't he look at what I did during initiation? Isn't my final IQ score in initiation enough for him to see I was smart enough to hide my intelligence from my parents' faction? Can't he see that?

Donovan's eye brows lift up towards his wavy dark brown hairline. "Would you care to explain to me why you have **intentionally** hidden your intelligence?"

"Intelligence is not highly prized in Amity. When I started asking too many questions, or giving too many answers, I was shut down. I was told that it wasn't something an Amity would do. I found ways around it. I learned a lot about the work the Erudite do with Amity, I checked out books from the library that were related to things Amity does so that I could learn more without it being obvious," I start my explanation.

"But these grades," Donovan interrupts me by putting my grades on his desk with a slight slap. "B's are not acceptable for Erudite."

I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself. "They **are** for Amity. I didn't grow up in Erudite, I grew up in Amity, and to be accepted in my parents' community, I had to be able to act the part of a good Amity boy. I changed answers from ones I knew was right to the wrong answers to keep the right impression. I did extra credit and never turned it in. I…"

Donovan cuts me off. "So, you don't feel that these grades are reflective of your ability?"

"No, sir, I don't," I state firmly.

"Do you think your IQ would be more representative?" Donovan asks calmly.

"Yes, I do."

He looks through the papers again and pulls out my IQ results. He passes the paper over to me. I take it confidently, but my confidence is shattered when I see the number. 135. 130 is the low end for Erudite. I am not one of the smartest people in the faction of the smart.

I am one of the dumbest.

I hand it back without a word.

"You are smart enough to stay here, maybe even be successful if you work hard, but you will never have one of the top jobs. We always need someone to clean up and inventory in the labs." Donovan looks pleased with his idea.

I feel myself turning a little green. This is not what I pictured myself doing.

"But there has also been a request for you in library research." Donovan leans back in his chair. "Evidently you impressed some people in that department, and they have asked for you. Would you be interested in it?"

I can clean up after other people or I can do their research for them, but I can't work in the labs or do research for myself.

Neither of them is a job I covet, but only one of them will allow me to continue learning. "If I have a choice, I'd rather be a research librarian. I helped Mrs. Dorn collect research materials for other classes in the upper levels a couple of times."

"Very well." Donovan scribbles a couple of lines on his paper. "Most of your training will be on the job, provided by your department. We'll get you contact information and let you know where you need to be on Monday when the next phase of training starts."

It is a dismissal. Not the victory I was anticipating.

* * *

I want to avoid everyone and skip dinner. I'm not up to being excited for my Erudite friends and the wonderful jobs they ended up with. I'm going to end up spending all of my time stuck in the dusty bookshelves in the library.

I start second-guessing my decision. If I had gone for the other job Donovan offered me, the one where I clean up and inventory laboratories, maybe I could work up to actually doing some of the basic lab work. When I stop and look at it, I'm not sure there is any real advancement in working in the library.

The only thing that stops me from doing it is the chance to learn while I am researching. I hope that it is more than just pulling out the books, like I did for Mrs. Dorn. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do the research, so I can learn about different things.

"I guess we'll be together through our basic medical classes," Marion tells Patrick.

I take a deep breath, hoping that if I can keep everyone talking about their jobs, they won't realize that they haven't heard what I'm doing. "What are you two doing?"

"I'm going to be a midwife!" Marion smiles broadly. "My aunt is one of the midwives and she's gotten permission in the past for me to be in on some of her appointments, so I was hoping that would give me a better chance of getting the job, but I'm still so excited. I mean, not everyone gets a chance to…"

Charlotte cuts her off with a laugh. "It's a shame that Marion isn't sure if she is going to like her job or not!"

Marion joins in with the laughter. "Well, aren't you excited? I mean, you got the job you wanted, right?"

"I did, and I am," Charlotte admits, "but you don't hear me gushing like an Amity in love."

Marion casts a quick glance at me to see if I am offended by Charlotte's comparison to Amity, but she's right. An Amity couple when they first fall in love is pretty nauseating. Alec met a girl in his class who transferred from Erudite, and he was pretty pitiful the first year they were dating. "So, what is this exciting but not gushable job?" I ask.

Charlotte's eyes raise in disbelief as she repeats the word. "Gushable? I'm pretty sure gushable isn't actually a word."

"Give him a break," Ian says. "He's still new here. It probably is a word in Amity."

Charlotte scowls at Ian.

I don't really want to cause the two of them to fight, so I reword my question. "So, what will you be doing?"

"I know it is going to sound boring."

"That's because it **is** boring," Marion interrupts with a loud aside.

Charlotte rolls her eyes at her best friend. "Well, I'm glad you find it boring because I find if fascinating. I like data. I'm going to be doing statistics, data dissemination, things like that."

"I bet that's interesting." It's the only thing I can think of to say to that.

Charlotte laughs again. "I know everyone here thinks I got stuck with the worst job, but I like it."

"And that's what is important," Ian tells her with a smile.

"What about you?" I turn to Patrick. "I'm guess that you are doing something medical?"

Patrick grins. "I'm going to be a doctor. They haven't given me a specialty yet, but I'm not concerned about that. I just want to practice medicine."

There is a slight lull in the conversation and I hurry to fill it, since I don't want anyone to ask me. "Ian, what about you?"

"I'll be working Research and Development, with Graham." Ian draws himself up proudly and looks over at Charlotte. "Just like we planned."

Charlotte rolls her eyes and laughs. "We planned? I'm pretty sure that has always been **your** plan and there is no **we** to it."

Ian looks injured. "We've talked about this for years now that…"

"I don't think anyone else really cares, Ian," Charlotte interrupts him. "Norton, what about you? What are you going to be doing?"

I had hoped to avoid this, but there is no avoiding it. I try to sound proud and excited. "I'm going to be a research librarian."

There is a moment of silence. I see looks of pity starting to form on Patrick and Marion's faces and a look of almost joy on Ian's.

Charlotte quickly speaks up. "Well, I think that is a wonderful job! I mean, if I couldn't have my job, I would certainly want yours."

Ian gives her a skeptical look.

"Think about it, you're going to get to learn about everything! When Marion comes across a difficult maternity case and needs to find out about previous cases she's going to come to you and you'll get to learn a little about maternity, and when Patrick is picking a specialty, he'll probably come to you and have you look over his options, and you'll learn more about medicine. And Ian may be in research and development, but… he likes development more than research, so if he's assigned to improve something about, let's say, Dauntless weapons, you'll be the one doing the research on it. I think it's a wonderful job," Charlotte finishes with a smile.

I smile back at her, grateful for her words of encouragement.

* * *

"Most of your training will be on the job," Miranda the gray haired head librarian tells me when I report to her the next day. "Your first assignment if going to be learning the Dewey Decimal system. You will take a test on it tomorrow."

I take the papers that she hands me and look at her expectantly.

She looks at me, with her sharp angular brown eyes, over the small rectangle glasses that perch on the edge of her nose. "That's it. You have all day to study it. Tomorrow, after you get a hundred on your test, we'll start going over what your daily duties will be."

"I'll get right on this," I assure her.

* * *

"I know the library is open on Founder's Day." Charlotte tilts her head. "And I'm pretty sure, as low man on the totem pole, you are going to have to work it."

Although Founder's Day is celebrated in Amity, when they started talking about it last night, I got the impression that Amity's version must be pretty low key compared to what the Erudite do. By listening, I've discovered that everyone, except me, already has the day off. Marion and Patrick mentioned at dinner last night they are going to enjoy the day off while they have it, because they both know they will have to take their turns in manning the critical services once they have graduated. Ian took the chance to brag that he and Charlotte are the smart ones, because they both chose jobs where the offices always close on Founder's Day.

I found some time yesterday to do a little research on the tradition of Founder's Day here in Erudite. It turns out the day is a big deal: due to Edith Prior being instrumental in setting up the Factions. Not only was she the first leader of the Erudite, but she was also the one who came up with the concept for the Factions. She sold the rest of the population of the city on the idea. She wrote much of the Erudite manifesto and even consulted with the other Factions as they wrote theirs. It is believed in Erudite that our perfect society wouldn't exist without her.

As long as the weather is nice, most of the events will take place outside. It is logical not to waste the space and manpower setting up things inside, when you can get the Factionless to set up tents and break them down as well as clean up any refuse for you.

"You're right," I tell Charlotte. "The library is only open for ten hours so I will be working from open to close."

"It's not perfect, but it will work," She mutters half to herself, half to me. "There's something that I want you to see. I'll be waiting for you outside of the library door when it closes."

* * *

The morning after Founder's Day I find it hard to concentrate on my studies. The fireworks aren't as easy to see from Erudite as they are from Amity, so that was a little disappointing, but we went to a rooftop to watch them from, so at least the skyline didn't get in our way.

But the fireworks weren't what Charlotte wanted me to see. She wanted me to see the Trivia Game that is played almost year-round. Founder's Day is the finals. She told me they will take a short break before starting the season over again, and that she expects to see me at the organizational meeting.

I find an empty study room on the second floor. I spread my papers out on the table. My gaze alternates between the papers I am scanning and the view through the glass partitions separating the rooms. Charlotte has a good point. Research librarian isn't going to be all bad. I am going to get a chance to read and learn new things. I smile at the thought of her encouraging me.

I force myself to look down at my book I'm marking for a geneticist. Suddenly, the light in the room dims. I look up, wondering if the sun has gone behind a cloud, but it is Ian. He has flipped the electro-chromatic switch that sends voltage through the glass in order to frost it so we can study without interruption, Ian looks around the room as if he is double-checking to see that the two of us are alone. "Norton?"

I look up from the notes I am studying.

"Yes."

He takes a deep breath. "Charlotte…"

I look at him puzzled, wondering why he's bringing her up.

"Just a piece of advice. All of us who stayed are little in love with her. She's not interested in anything or anyone beyond learning. Don't join the ranks. Our parents have logically looked at the intelligence areas in which each of us excel. It was decided long before you got here that we're going to be married one day. One of our children will most likely lead this faction one day," he boasts and then walks out of the room.

* * *

"Norton!"

I look up from the list of books that I am collecting for someone in research and development to see Mrs. Dorn standing there. "Mrs. Dorn."

She laughs and pulls her reading glasses off her nose, and lets them hang from their chain from her neck. "Please, we're co-workers now. It's Vanna."

"Vanna." I try out her given name for the first time.

"I'm so pleased to see you here. I asked for you specifically. Did you know that?" Her copper-colored hair is not in its typical bun today; instead, it is held back with a couple of clips from the side.

"You did?" I ask, puzzled.

"I did. You did such an excellent job researching those topics I gave you back in school. I knew you were a natural for this. And…" she studies me for a second. "Come with me, Norton. I need your help in the stacks in the basement."

I follow her down the stairs to the restricted lower level. Here there are no study rooms, no computers available for use. There are just rows and rows of books. If someone wants one of these books, they have to go through a Research Librarian. I was inducted into them about a month ago.

She walks to a bookshelf that I noticed on the first day, because it not completely against the wall. "Can you try moving this bookshelf for me?"

"Sure, but I tried pushing it back to the wall earlier, and it won't budge," I let her know before I try.

Vanna smiles mysteriously. "No, don't push it in, pull it out."

I look at her, curious as to why she would want it moved away from the wall. I put my hand around the edge and feel it give way, just a little. I quickly pull my hand away. My surprise must show on my face.

"Did it move?"

"I haven't tried yet." I put my hand back.

"No, not the bookshelf, the latch. Did you feel the latch move?" Her voice is low and urgent.

I look at her for a moment and then admit, "Yes, I did."

"Good. Now move away. It won't actually move for you, not yet at least. Before you move this, you must always make sure that there is no one in this area." She looks around before taking my place and pulling the bookshelf, not towards the wall, but not away from the wall, either. She moves the bookshelf **with** the wall.

Behind it, there is a small room. In the center of the room, there is table with two chairs offset and facing each other. Attached to the top of each desk is are laminated sheets that say "Hidden Archive" at the top. At one place there are two notebooks, each with a bookmark hanging out of it.

"What is this place?" I ask as I follow her into the room. I look around in awe. Floor to ceiling bookshelves fill all of the walls except for the wall that Vanna moved.

"This is the actual job that I wanted you for." Vanna smile broadens. "This is the archive."

I walk around the small room, looking at the books lining the walls. "I thought the archive was online and that Miranda leads it."

"That's the official archive," Vanna tells me slyly. "We know that archive has been compromised more than once."

I turn quickly from the shelves to face her. "It's been compromised?"

"This archive has actually given us proof that our digital archive has been compromised." Vanna pauses while she deliberately looks around the room. "More than once."

"Really?"

Vanna takes a small step stool and puts it next to the beginning of the book shelves. She sanitizes her hands, and then climbs the steps and pulls out the first bound notebook. She brings it down and shows it to me. It is sapphire blue with an odd drawing on it. It looks like a box with a small hole with a single drop of water falling from it. "This archive was started when someone pulled this out of the trash. This is the journal of the first leader of Erudite, Edith Prior."

I look at it, impressed by the piece of history that she holds. I reach out my hand to touch it, but Vanna pulls it away from me. "Any time you handle one of these, you **must** sanitize your hands to remove any oils that would damage the pages. We don't use the gloves with anything that is paper, because you can inadvertently tear the paper since you can't feel it."

"I understand." I move to the sanitizer and use it like I just watched Vanna do. Reverently I touch the cover with one finger. "Can I read it?"

Vanna smiles at me. "As a hidden archivist, you will be able to read any of this that you want. Although I don't think this is where you will want to start."

"Where will I want to start?" Certainly there won't be anything I want to read more than Edith Prior's history.

"We'll get there soon enough. You will not only be reading the archive, but you will have a notebook- or notebooks- of your own to fill." Vanna climbs back up and puts Edith Prior's book back up. "This archive can't be accessed by anyone outside of the small group of hidden archivists. Before you leave today, we will add your fingerprint to the sensor. Once we have done that, the button that you found today will release the latch and you will be able to get in."

"How many of us are there?"

"The number fluctuates. We try to keep it no fewer than three, no more than five. Norton, you need to understand that you are an unusual case. Normally we don't recruit anyone for the hidden archive who hasn't been a research librarian for at least five years," she pauses to let that soak in, "but I was able to talk them into letting you start early."

I haven't been a librarian for much more than ten weeks. "Why did you talk them into making an exception for me?"

"Because your existence is actual proof that our history has changed. You are mentioned, by name, in two different journals," Vanna pauses and watches that sink in.

 **Read and Review bonus features will be a little different this time. Most of the time they won't be a retelling of the scene from someone else's POV. In one chapter I'll give you the key to the code that is used, in another you'll get the complete entry to a journal, there will be times that I will give you the POV of one of the ancestors in a scene totally unrelated to the chapter.**

 **This time it is what is on the page that says "Hidden Archive" on the desks. This will give you a little sneak peak of the world that Vanna is introducing to Norton. If you want to learn a little about the hidden archive before the next chapter is up leave me a review, and I'll pass it on!**


	3. Chapter 3

**(2/1/2019)**

 **Thank you to everyone who took time to review the last chapter. I appreciate it, more than you probably realize!**

 **Congratulations to DarkWynd and Shori-d who each recognized Marion from The Blackest Shade of Gray, yes, if you have read The Blackest Shade of Gray, she is the same Marion from that story.**

 **Bonus point are awarded to Shori, who identified another ancestor besides Marion...**

 **Characters-**

 **Vanna Dorn- school librarian, she recognized and encouraged Norton's intelligence as a child. She got him the job of research librarian and is introducing him to the Hidden Archive.**

 **Charlotte, Ian, Marion, and Patrick- Norton's friends from initiation.**

 **Bud- (mentioned) Norton's Papa**

 **Phyllis- (mentioned) referred to as Norton's "aunt" in one of his visions. He knows no one by that name.**

 **Graham- Initiation mentor. He works in Research and Development.**

 **Chapter Three-**

As she programs my fingerprint into the sensor, Vanna explains more about the hidden room to me. "This room doesn't officially exist. The architectural plans for this building don't include this room. We pass on the knowledge from Hidden Archivist to Hidden Archivist. As you will learn when you read the archives, there are times when we all forget this room exists and then one of us will rediscover this room, and we begin again."

"When was the last time that happened?" I ask absently.

"It seems to be about twelve years ago, when you were four."

I look at her, speechless. In the strange visions I have, I'm usually about four years old.

Vanna watches me closely. "That seems to mean something to you."

"I have weird dreams from that age," I reluctantly admit.

Her blue eyes hold mine as she speculates aloud, "I wonder if they really are dreams…"

Curious, I ask, "What else could they be?"

"I'll answer that after you have read the first couple of journals I have planned for you. Do you have time to read now?"

I look at my watch. "Not really. I'm supposed to be at the meeting for Trivia in less than half an hour."

"I'm sure you will do well at it. When are you available? I would like to be with you the first time you come to read. There are still a few things that we need to go over."

"You made it!" Charlotte sounds excited.

"Of course, I made it. I told you I would, didn't I?" I can't help but smile that she's glad I'm here.

"You did, and I shouldn't have doubted you, but… I wasn't sure you understood exactly how important this meeting is. They only have introductory meetings once a year, and you can't play Trivia until you have attended an introductory meeting. If you didn't show up today, it would be a whole year before you would be able to play," She tells me earnestly.

I'm not sure why she is so concerned about me being able to play. "That's important?"

Charlotte puts an arm around me. "You are vital to the team."

"What's going on here?" Ian asks as he joins us.

Charlotte moves her arm. "I was just getting ready to explain to Norton how he is our secret weapon."

"Oh, he is?" Ian sounds unconvinced.

"Of course, he is!" Marion interjects as she and Patrick join us.

Patrick puts an arm around Marion's shoulder. "He's the lynch pin."

"How am I the only one who doesn't know this?" Ian asks dryly.

"Because you are the only one not using your head." Charlotte tosses her head. Her black hair flows around her shoulders. "Where does Norton work?"

"The library," Ian says with a "duh" tone to his voice.

"Yes, the library, where he is a researcher…" Patrick trails off to see if Ian is smart enough to figure it out from there.

He's not, but I am. I can't keep from smiling.

"What?" Ian asks, confused by my smile.

"It's trivia." I explain, "I know a little about a lot of things, and I'm learning a lot about different areas with every day. I am a wealth of trivia."

"Normally, we don't read the record of anyone who is alive," Vanna picks up a book with two book marks in it, which is on the double desk we both sit at. "But this one is mine from the time period right before everyone seems to have lost their memories. You don't need to read all of this one." She opens the book to the first bookmark and points a long nail to a short entry. "To start off with, just read this entry."

I take the book from her, curious as to what I am about to find.

 _ **There is much unrest these days. Our government is collapsing. The factions are no longer holding us together, rather they seem to be tearing us apart. We are on the verge of a civil war. Our city is in the process of imploding.**_

 _ **I am trying to bring on a co-worker, who is a couple of years younger than I am, as new archivist. Her husband is one of the Erudite representatives on the city council. I believe there is much that she knows and would be able to contribute to this record.**_

 _ **In reading over the chronicles that other generations have left behind, I am afraid that if we don't resolve this crisis, we are going to experience another major change, that the world as we know it is about to disappear, and we will forget our history as we know it today.**_

I finish the marked entry and wordlessly hand the book back to her.

Vanna says nothing, but picks up the second book. She reverently strokes the cover. "The writer of this one is dead, we assume. A couple of us have scoured the official archive, and we can't find a record that she actually existed. There is no one by her name in the birth records. Neither her name nor her husband's name appear anywhere in any official record. She mentions a child. We cannot find a record of her child in Erudite."

My head tips at her wording. I take off my glasses and begin to chew on the arm of one of them. There is something odd about the words that she chose. "You didn't say that a record of her child doesn't exist, but that there isn't a record of her child in Erudite."

Vanna smiles at me. "That's right, Norton. What do you think that means?"

I take the arm of my glasses out of my mouth and point them at her. "Her child grew up in a different faction."

"Why don't you read it and let me know what you think." She hands me the book.

 _ **My name is Elizabeth, and I am starting as an archivist at a very interesting time.**_ _**Something big is getting ready to happen, and we all know it. There is so much for me to report, that I'm not quite sure where to start.**_

 _ **Since my husband, Raynaud, is part of the city government, my friend who has recruited me to work in this archive, Vanna, has specifically asked me to record what is going on in our government.**_

 _ **Our council consists of ten voting members from each faction of the five factions. This design is in place to make sure that each Faction has equal representation. The Factions have to work together, since no one Faction has enough votes to control everything. The Factionless have a representation of five members. They have no vote, but they are allowed to speak up so that we remember to consider those who have chosen, or been forced, to live outside of a faction.**_

 _ **Here in Erudite the people with the ten highest IQ's are our representatives. Raynaud is one of them. He is my source for what is going on in the government right now. I may not be in on these meetings, but my husband shares everything with me, so I know what is going on there better than anyone outside of the council.**_

 _ **The council has been corrupted. Our perfect government system, with its built-in checks and balances between the Factions has been violated. Representatives from Dauntless have attempted to bribe Erudite, Abnegation, and Amity for their votes, and at least some of the representatives have accepted it. They have tried to keep this information away from the general public while they deal with the breach, but the rumor is starting to spread.**_

 _ **I was born Amity, and the first Saturday of each month is Visiting Day for those of us who have changed factions. On this day, we are allowed to visit the families we left behind. I see my brother almost every month. My parents are dead, but I take our son to see my brother, his wife and their two sons. This is how I know that the information has started to spread. Last month when I went to see my brother, he asked me about it.**_

 _ **Before I answered any of his questions, I asked him what he knew.**_

 _ **He was astonishingly correct in what he knew. He knew that Raynaud had been approached with an offer, Not of credits, because they didn't think he would take it. Instead, they had offered to vote his way on an upcoming issue that doesn't quite have the support it needs to pass. He even knew that the Candor representatives hadn't been approached because with their focus on honesty, it was assumed that all of their representatives would have said no and immediately reported it.**_

 _ **The vote that has been put in question is about the Factionless and jobs and payment that are available to them. The Dauntless put forward that the jobs needed to be reduced and payment for them should be too.**_

 _ **Although few people care about the vote itself, people in every Faction are very upset by the bribery involved in it.**_

 _ **My brother, Bud,**_

I stop reading. Bud is Papa's name. I look up at Vanna.

She stares back at me, waiting for me to speak.

"Elizabeth had a brother named Bud."

"Yes, that's what it says. But there is no record of Elizabeth, just Bud."

I swallow hard. "Papa… Papa's name is Bud."

"Keep reading," Vanna encourages.

 _ **My brother, Bud, and some other members of Amity believe that they need to get involved and resolve this in a peaceful manner before things go much further and there is no peaceful resolution. They want to put together a group outside of the official Amity representatives to ensure that no one of the group was bribed. They will approach the council and ask for action of some kind to be taken. They want the representatives who gave and accepted the bribes to be removed from government.**_

 _ **I fully agree with and support this idea. I have asked my brother to let me know when Amity has made a decision on this. Since it will have to be discussed and agreed upon by the entire faction, it may not happen quickly, but I do believe it will happen.**_

I turn the page and read the next entry.

 _ **I don't always give my former faction credit. I have a tendency to remember the illogical, inefficient way that they operate.**_

 _ **They have surprised me this time. In a single meeting, they came to complete agreement on Bud's proposal. The delegation of Amity went to see the council last week.**_

 _ **Raynaud says it was a complete fiasco.**_

 _ **Evidently, more people on the council were approached and accepted the bribes than we realized. They told the Amity to stay out of it and refused to censor anyone about what happened. They won't even consider removing anyone from the council.**_

 _ **Today during Visiting Day, Bud told me that the Amity committee have decided to take their campaign to the people. The Amity committee has transfers, or members with relatives who transferred, from the other four factions and they will be asking their family members to quietly spread the word that there will be a peaceful demonstration. We will be meeting in Millennial Park, since it is the most central green space.**_

 _ **Raynaud and I will be participating. We have asked his sister, Phyllis, to watch over our son, Norton. Even though it is going to be a peaceful demonstration, I don't think it is good place to have a four-year-old.**_

There is nothing else. I look on the next page and flip through the other pages, but the entries stop there. Elizabeth didn't write anything else.

I look up at Vanna. "That's all she wrote."

Vanna's blue eyes are compassionate. "That's all she wrote."

"I told you that I have weird dreams from about the age of four." I clear my voice. "In one of them there is a man I call 'Father' who tells me to stay under my bed and wait until my aunt Phyllis comes to take care of me."

"Does she show up?" Vanna questions me.

"No."

She opens her book up to the second bookmark and hands it to me.

 _ **The protest started yesterday. There were people from every faction. Elizabeth told me that her brother, Bud, and the rest of the group from Amity was going to spread the word. They did a very good job of getting the word to every faction in one Visiting Day. The demonstration was well attended. Everything was peaceful at the start. Then the shouting started, then the shoving, and then suddenly, violence erupted.**_

 _ **At first, the violence was against things. People broke windows and tore down street signs and light posts.**_

 _ **It escalated from there. They bombed the streets. They shot people.**_

 _ **The chaos isn't over. The fighting still continues. We are still trying to sort out who did what, and exactly who is dead and who is missing.**_

 _ **Among the dead are my friend Elizabeth and her husband, Raynaud.**_

 _ **Raynaud's sister, Phyllis, is among the injured.**_

 _ **Among the missing is their son, Norton.**_

"Norton?" A pause. "Norton? I can't get him to respond."

"Norton!" Ian's voice is loud and sharp.

My head snaps up. "What?"

"Are you okay?" Charlotte sound concerned.

"I'm fine," I lie. "Why?"

Marion is studying me intently, too. "You aren't fine. You've been off in a different world."

"Just have my head in my research." I don't admit that what I have been researching is my own history in the hidden archive, since none of them know it exists.

"I figured you would have a job that you could leave behind you," Ian says somewhat snidely.

I take a deep breath to keep from snapping back. I can't tell him the truth. I can't tell him that I'm trying to puzzle through my history and that it looks like I am technically Erudite-born, like them. I can't tell him that I have found hidden proof that I, like they, was actually born here, or that I might have even been friends with them in nursery school.

There is another living member of the hidden archive who recorded information about the uprising when I was four. He has also given me permission to read what he wrote about the event. Eagerly I make my way back to the archive the first chance that I have, to see what he had to say.

 _ **There is a faction-wide meeting in an hour, so I'm going to have to make this quick. As a Hidden Archivist, I am aware that when there have been major uprisings or disturbances in the past, that the archive goes silent for a period of time. It is like everyone at one time forgets the archive exists. With the current uprisings that are showing little sign of slowing down, this might be my last entry for who knows how long.**_

 _ **I want to document the way our life is right now. I have discovered, in reading the previous archives, that things change when these memory lapses occur. So just in case this happens, I want to leave a record of the way things have been.**_

 _ **At eighteen, everyone takes the Aptitude Test, where they discover if the Faction they were born into is really the Faction that they are best suited for. The next day is Choosing Day, where they select the Faction that they want to live in. We don't have to select the Faction we have an aptitude for. If your aptitude isn't for the faction we were born in, you are able to stay there, or even change to a faction we don't have any aptitude or ties to.**_

 _ **Family ties and factions are considered to be equally important in keeping us out of war. Transfers are encouraged to visit their family the first Saturday of each month. We refer to it as Visiting Day. Visits outside of this time frame are only allowed in case of a family emergency. Most weddings of transfers take place the first Saturday of the month so their families can be there.**_

 _ **Our current troubles come from the fact that information that should have been kept from the general population has been spread through family contact.**_

 _ **Raynaud, one of the Erudite representatives, has a brother-in-law in Amity. His wife, Elizabeth, told him that representatives from Dauntless had tried to bribe Raynaud and other Erudite representatives to vote for more spending on research to defend our city. They also tried to bribe Amity and explained that it would be to put them inside of the fence. This is information that should not have been passed on. Since Amity prizes peace, her brother and some of the members of his faction decided to have a march to express their concern with this.**_

 _ **It didn't remain peaceful. It wasn't Amity that changed it. No one is sure who started the violence. I've heard it was the factionless. I've heard it was Dauntless. I've heard it was Candor. I've even heard it was Erudite. The only two groups currently being held blameless are Amity and Abnegation.**_

 _ **There have been causalities in all factions. We are trying to make a comprehensive list. I don't know if we are going to succeed. I'm concerned that the memory loss is going to happen again, and soon.**_

 _ **I am almost out of time before I need to be at the meeting. If I make it out of the meeting with my memory, I will start working on this list from other factions. For right now I'm going to make record the names of the people in my faction.**_

I scan through the list, impatient to see if I am right about the names I will see.

Under the heading "Known Dead" I find their names, Elizabeth and Raynaud, the people who I now believe are my parents.

Under the heading "Missing" I find my name. Norton.

The next entry after this one is much later. It looks like it is over a year later, but I don't know if there is any way to know if that date is correct or not. This entry convinces me that there is some way out there of taking someone's memories away.

 _ **I have no memory of a world like the one I described up above or of the events that are mentioned in it. As far as I know, there has never been any violence in our city since the Factions started. If it wasn't for the fact that this is my handwriting, I would wonder what kind of a trick this is…**_

"You're late!" Charlotte announces to me as I walk into the study room in the library that she reserved for Trivia practice.

"I know. I'm sorry." I sit down in the only empty seat, which is next to Patrick and across from her.

"Seriously, Norton," She chides. "You work in this building, you skipped dinner, and **you** are the one that is late?"

"I'm sorry. I got wrapped up in a research project and lost track of time." I try to look as apologetic as possible.

Marion's forehead wrinkles. "What was so interesting?"

I try to think about what I was working on before I got wrapped up in my personal research. "I was working on a research project for Graham. He's working on creating a receiver…""

"That will be able to detect where a transmission is coming from." Ian finishes for me.

"How do you know?" I ask.

Ian stretches and puts an arm around the back of Charlotte's chair. "I'm the intern working on the project."

"Okay, enough shop talk, let's talk trivia." Charlotte tries to get us back on topic, while I try not to scowl at Ian.

"You do good work." Graham flips through the research material that I hand to him. "I could have used your brain on my team."

"Not really. I'm not that smart. My IQ is at the low end of the faction. 135 isn't that smart," I admit ashamedly.

Graham is quiet for a minute, rubbing his hands slowly together. When he starts talking he levels a very serious look at me and his voice is low. "Norton, we are going to finish this conversation in another place and at another time. But you need to realize you are much smarter than that."

"No, I'm not." It is the closest I've come to admitting that I'm not the genius I thought I while growing up in Amity.

Graham shakes his head while looking at a glass-covered bubble just outside the doorway. "Another place, another time."

It is hard for me to tell Vanna that I have finished reading the entries that she has left for me, to admit that I am finished with them. I know that once she puts them up on the shelf, they are off limits to me until she and the other archivist who wrote it are dead. Since Elizabeth, my mother, is dead. I can read hers at any time I want.

It dawns on me that she never told me that I can't copy the entries. So, I do. I hand copy the entries that refer to me, my family, and the events surrounding the change of my life. Only then do I let her know that I have finished reading them.

Every time I walk into the archive, I find myself longing to pick them up and read them again in their own handwriting.

I look over at the notebook that Vanna gave me to write down my own observations. I guess it is time that I start writing what I know.

 _ **I am the newest archivist. I was recruited by Vanna. I have been allowed to read selected entries from current archivists and in doing that, I have discovered that I don't actually know my own history. Evidently, during a crisis, my parents died. I was moved from Erudite to Amity. My name is Norton, and I believe I am the same Norton that the mention as being missing…**_

It is the week before the Choosing Ceremony, when Graham invites me to have dinner at his house so we can talk. His wife is working late on a hydroponics project in Amity, and we have the apartment to ourselves.

"The first thing you must know," Graham starts as he hands me a glass of the bubbly lemon-lime drink that is a popular treat in Erudite, "Is that Donovan is very insecure. He has the lowest IQ on record for an Erudite leader. He is worried that out there somewhere in the faction is someone whose IQ is higher than his, and that one day, this person is going to show up and demand a retest and he will lose his control of the faction. You must always watch what you say in the labs- anywhere in public, really. He secretly doubled the number of cameras anywhere he thinks people might speak out against him."

I look at Graham doubtfully. "If it was secret, how do you know?"

His rueful smile proceeds his answer. "Six months before your initiation, one of my researchers made a couple of… disparaging remarks about Donovan. The next day he was moved for 'unspecified' reasons. Sage, one of my fellow initiation mentors, has a younger brother who transferred to Dauntless two years ago. He works in the control room. When she went to see him on Visiting Day, the fact that there are now more of the glass hemispheres just _happened_ to come up in their conversation. Her brother explained that those are the cameras they watch the city with."

"So, it's best to never say anything against Donovan," I observe.

"Unless you are in the privacy of a personal residence… that's a good rule," Graham agrees quickly.

"I'll remember that," I promise him.

"You," Graham levels and intense gaze with his piercing brown eyes at me, as he points at me, "more than anyone else I know, _must_ remember that."

"Why is that?"

"Because there is a _very_ good chance you are the one he is worried about." Graham rubs his palms together.

" **Me** _?_ "

"As a mentor, I have access to everyone's records. I remembered being impressed at your score on your first IQ test. I had never seen a score so high from a transfer. Your final test score is reported as having been considerably lower than your first test. That puzzled me. I went back and checked the actual test, and when I compared them to your official results that were entered into the system, the last two numbers were flipped. As a transfer initiate, your final IQ test had you three points higher than Donovan." Graham tells me.

I sit there stunned, unsure what to say. My IQ is higher than of the leader of the Faction.

Graham leans forward on his elbows, his deep brown eyes holding mine. "You are going to have to be very careful and hide this knowledge. Donovan can never know that you know this. _No one_ can ever know that you know this. I put nothing past Donovan in an effort to keep control of his faction. Do you understand?"

Before I can answer him there was a quick knock on the door. Graham isn't even out of his chair to open it up the door flies open. "Mother! Father! You'll never guess what…" Charlotte's voice trails off when she sees me sitting there, although she still bounds into the room. Her eyes sparkle with excitement that doesn't diminish when she sees me.

"Charlotte! What are you doing home?" Graham crosses the room and hugs her.

I stand, dumbfounded. Until right now, it has never crossed my mind that I don't know who Charlotte's or any of my other Erudite friends' parents are. "Hi." I pick a one syllable word in hopes that I don't stammer over it.

Charlotte steps away from her father and smiles. "Hi, yourself. I'm Charlotte, Graham's daughter."

I shake my head at her playful tone. " **This** is why I was the only one with Graham as a mentor."


	4. Chapter 4

**(2/23/2019)**

 **Sorry! Last weekend my family was in town and I realized I hadn't published on Wednesday!**

 **Quick note from the previous chapter... in BK2U's review she asked about Norton's Papa (uncle) Bud being related to the Bud from Divergent... I missed that entirely! I had three great uncles that I knew, Henry (Tami's husband from The Blackest Shade of Gray) Bud (who I named Norton's Papa after) and Derwood (who is coming later). There was no intent for you to make a correlation between to the two characters. (But you know if I can figure out a way to play this off I will!)**

 **Vanna Dorn- school librarian, she recruited Norton for a job as a research librarian and hidden archivist**

 **Charlotte, Ian, Marion, Patrick- friends from** **initiation**

 **Conroy- one of the initiation mentors**

 **Chapter 4**

I have wanted to read Edith Prior's diary ever since Vanna showed it to me. I wouldn't have skipped it for anything less than my own story. I know I don't have time to read it before I meet up with the group for Trivia Night. Even though I know, from the day that Vanna showed them to me, that the first few pages are blank, I can't resist picking it up and looking at those blank pages. I study each page, trying to discover anything that might be hidden, but I come up with nothing. It leaves me still wondering why the first seven pages of Edith Prior's diary are blank. In a way, it is fortuitous, since the rule of no food or drink in the room was instituted after someone spilled a drink on this book; there is a chance we would have lost anything that had been written on that page. The first entry is on page eight.

 _ **I have left the first seven pages of this journal blank so that I will remember that I had a life before I became the leader of Erudite, but there is nothing worth recording of my life before we created the factions.**_

* * *

Charlotte looks pointedly at the clock.

"I know, I know." I slip into my seat between Ian and Marion.

"You cut it awfully close," Marion leans in and tells me in a conspiratorial whisper. "Another two minutes and she would have had Patrick in your seat, and you would be the alternate tonight."

It's the last night of this year's Trivia season. The only competition left will be the finals on Founder's Day. We are the highest ranked team in our age range, but we aren't sure if we will be able to beat an older, more experienced team tonight and earn our place in the Founder's Day tournament. "I wasn't late on purpose," I respond grumpily. Charlotte wanted us here fifteen minutes early and I'm only about five minutes early, but after checking each of the blank pages in Edith Prior's diary to ensure they really are blank and reading the beginning of her first entry, I realized that I was running late. I would have liked to stay to read about the creation of the Factions, but there is no way that Charlotte would have forgiven me if I would have late to the match.

"All team leaders need to report to the podium for first match assignments. Please have your team roster ready." Tonight's emcee, a man probably two or three years older than us named Alistair, announces.

Charlotte gives me a stern look as she picks up the roster with our names on it.

I see a movement out of the corner of my eyes after Charlotte walks away. Ian is now sitting back in his chair with his arms folded, looking very smug.

* * *

 _ **There have been wars and rumors of wars forever. We have decided to take a new approach in stopping them. Gone is the illusion that our differences separate us. It's not our race, our religion, our beliefs that lead to division and war.**_

 _ **It is our lack. Our lack of selflessness, of friendship, of honesty, of bravery, of intelligence. These are the things that have caused the wars that have plagued our world. We have come to realize if we encourage the positives of these traits, we will finally be able to create a utopia, a perfect world.**_

 _ **To get there, we are establishing a world where people will be trained to focus on those traits.**_

 _ **We are referring to each group as a faction.**_

 _ **Each faction has its own leader. In meetings held within each faction, each group has found their own name, their own identity, and been allowed to write their own manifesto. We will be the Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite.**_

 _ **I, by virtue of my IQ, am the leader of Erudite. We have decided that the five leaders will make up the council that will make decisions that affect the entire city. Each leader will be the head of the council for one year. The next year it will move to the next leader. We will go in reverse alphabetical order of the faction names. This will make me the first leader of the council of five.**_

 _ **Our only concern with this plan is Amity. They are the reason are going in reverse alphabetical order, to put them off, in a logical manner, as long as possible. The members in Amity are so concerned about being friends and about everyone agreeing, that we are afraid that their leader will find it a challenge to keep everyone happy. Thankfully, that will be his problem, not mine.**_

* * *

"So, are you going to be able to tear yourself away from your precious research to go to tonight's lecture?" Charlotte teases me.

"What lecture?" After Trivia Night, a lecture is probably the most well attended activity here in Erudite.

"I thought you said you would tell him about it?" Charlotte levels a look at Ian.

Ian tries to look innocent. "I tried to, but I could never find him.

Charlotte rolls her dark eyes at him, "Conroy. You remember him, right?"

"He was one of the mentors from our initiation class," I answer quickly.

Charlotte beams at me. "Exactly! Recently he's been studying memory and ways to increase a child's retention. He's going to be presenting a three-part lecture on some of his latest research. I know we're all a few years away from being parents, but it can't hurt to start learning what we'll need to know for when we are."

"Charlotte, Norton is already married to his work. I'm sure if he does decide to marry and pass on his stellar intellect, it will be his wife's job to make sure the children are keeping up with and retaining their school work. He will be much too busy in the stacks of the library to worry about it." Ian is really getting on my nerves tonight.

Evidently, I'm not alone in that feeling. Marion stands up. "If I'm going to be able to make the lecture, I really need to study for tomorrow's anatomy test."

Patrick stands up with her, and grabs both her books and his. "We'll see you all at the lecture. Hopefully, we'll be able to explain the parts of the immune system by then."

I clean off the lenses of my glasses, finding myself envious of their jobs that require a lot more additional schooling than mine does. "Why is Patrick carrying her books?" I ask as I slip them back on.

"They're dating." Ian rolls his eyes at me, his tone implying that I should know this.

"In Erudite, when you are dating and you are going somewhere together, the man always carries the books," Charlotte explains to me.

"If you can tear yourself away from your job, the lecture is supposed to be in the first conference room," Ian speaks to me kindlier than he has all night.

"I should be able to be there. I have the research Graham asked for already put together for him. I shouldn't have to go back tonight." Even if I would like to do some more reading from Edith Prior's diary.

"You said something about wanting to see your parents for a little while tonight. I need to ask your father something about a test that we ran today." Ian stands, pulls out Charlotte's chair for her, and then picks up both her books and his.

Charlotte stands with him. "We'll save you a seat if you are running a little late."

I should show up tonight, but I'm not sure I want to deal with Ian any more tonight.

Ian starts walking, still holding onto her books.

She takes a couple of quick steps to catch up with him. "Ian, I'll take my books now."

I smile. Ian's plan just backfired on him.

* * *

"Charlotte, Ian, over here." I wave them over to the seats that I have saved.

"You made it!" Charlotte smiles and takes the seat next to me, but Ian looks like he swallowed something sour.

Marion and Patrick show up shortly after them, still chatting away about white blood cells and lymph nodes.

Alistair comes out to the podium. "Good evening, welcome to the first of a three-night lecture series on children and learning. It is good to see so many of you here interested in seeing what we can do to help improve the future of Erudite through the continued improvement of early childhood learning. Our lecturer for this series is Conroy. Many of you will recognize him as one of our illustrious initiation mentors…"

Conroy steps up so we can see him behind Alistair at the podium. I take out a small pad of paper that I keep with me and prepare to take notes.

* * *

 _ **Our first decade of the factions has been a success. We are on the right track by focusing on the positives, on the things that will avoid war, rather than the things that make us different or in trying to make everyone the same. We are proving that a world of peace, a world where people are able to live in harmony with each other is a reality, and not just a dream.**_

 _ **We have just completed our second rotation of leadership. Amity's turn is by far the most… trying.**_

"How is everything going?" Vanna asks me as we meet in the stacks one day.

"It's interesting work," I admit. "I enjoy learning about so many varied things."

Vanna smiles. "I'm glad to hear that." She looks around and when she sees that we are alone around she lowers her voice, and leans in. "How is your other job going?"

I keep my voice low, like hers. "I'm still not completely sure I'm reporting on the right things, but I keep recording things. Recently, I've been reading through Edith Prior's diary. I'm finding the early days of the Factions very interesting."

Her smile grows. "I think everyone reads her diary first."

* * *

"We have a microbiology test on Monday," Marion says as she stands up. "There's a study group meeting in five minutes. I really need to be there, so I'm going to miss Trivia practice tonight."

Charlotte turns her gaze to Patrick. "Are you going, too?"

Patrick glances at Marion before answering. "I really should. I'm struggling."

Marion raises her eyebrows at him and grabs her books. "Then grab your books and let's go."

Patrick picks up his books and together they leave the dinner table. I look at them and then at Charlotte. "I take it they aren't dating anymore?"

"It appears to be pretty amicable." Charlotte admits, "I'm not sure what exactly happened, but they both assured me it isn't going to effect the Trivia Team. They are both still on it."

* * *

The leader of the team we beat earlier in the evening heads straight to me as soon as the last game is over. He has straight dark blonde hair and a pair of glasses perched on top of his head. "Congratulations! You did a wonderful job."

"Thank you." We beat his team by only five points. It was our closest game with a team near our age.

"What would it take to get…" he stops before he finishes his statement.

Charlotte walks over. "Devon, your team is looking good."

Devon smiles without parting his lips. "I could say the same for you, Charlotte. Your team did well, but this man, Norton, is a formidable competitor."

"Yes, he is." Charlotte agrees. She stands there just looking at him, almost daring him to say what he was going to say to me in her presence. She gives him a sweet, but meaningful smile. "We study very hard."

His nostrils flare, and he takes a deep breath before answering her. "We all do. Excuse me. I need to talk with my team about our next study date." He exists on that line.

Charlotte lets out a deep breath. "I would be very disappointed if you ever changed teams, but if you leave us for Devon's team, I will never speak to you again."

"Where did that come from?" I ask, genuinely puzzled as to how she could think I would ever consider leaving her team, and why she has such venom in her voice.

"He was getting ready to start recruiting you for next year." Charlotte sounds indignant.

I give a little laugh, finding both thoughts ridiculous: that I would ever leave Charlotte or that anyone else would want me on their team. "Why would he want me?"

Charlotte smiles and gives a little shake of her head, causing her straight black hair to swing slightly. "Oh, Norton! Don't you realize how much of our team's success is due to you? If you ever decide to leave, there would be a fight over you!" Suddenly she turns very serious. "But if you ever decide to switch teams, or start one of your own, you have to promise me to never have anything to do with Devon."

"That's an easy promise to make. I can't imagine leaving, ever." I can't help but ask, "What do you have against Devon?" I can't help but ask.

"Do you remember playing his team last year?" Charlotte asks with a meaningful tone.

I think for a moment and then respond, "No, I guess I don't."

"That's because they were suspended the last two years for cheating. This year they are on probation. They can play, but they aren't earning any points towards the finals and they can't recruit anyone new. Next year they are allowed to recruit new members. Devon really wants to win, so… he was after my star player."

I laugh at her description of me. "I'm not the best player. You are."

Charlotte tips her head to one side. "Haven't you ever looked at our stats?"

I know Charlotte the statistician isn't going to be happy, but I answer honestly, "No."

Charlotte shakes her head and asks with an indulgent smile, "Why do I keep stats if none of you look at them?"

I struggle to keep my face straight as I answer her, "Because you love numbers and statistics, and you would keep them even if you knew none of us would ever look at them."

Charlotte looks at me with her mouth slightly open. I have the strangest desire to lean in and kiss her, but the moment is broken when she tips her head back and laughs.

* * *

"If I had known that making the finals meant I get off the entire day for Founder's Day, I would have found a way to make it to the finals last year!" I tell Charlotte and Ian with a laugh, as we walk through the tents set up along the street for today's celebration.

We spend the morning checking out as many of the tents as we can playing games of skill and logic and eating lunch in a tent where our food is cooked outside. Before today, I've only experienced the end of the Trivia Finals when things are winding down for the evening so everyone could get ready for the fireworks. I am enjoying the full day for the first time.

"Really? This is what gets you to want to win?" Charlotte asks with laughter as we enter the tent where the finals for the Trivia will start in less than an hour.

Marion is already there waiting for us, talking to Alistair. When she sees us, she excuses herself from him and walks over to us. "Can you believe we made it?!"

"Of course! I know how to put together a winning team." Charlotte grins and tosses her head.

* * *

"Where's Marion?" I ask Charlotte and Ian. Even though we made it to the finals, we didn't win. So, Charlotte already has us practicing for the new trivia season.

Ian groans. "You shouldn't have asked her that."

"Marion is no longer able to play Trivia," Charlotte says bitterly.

"Why not?" I ask innocently, since I have no idea, besides cheating, what it would take to get banned from Trivia. I know that there is no way that Marion cheated.

Patrick fields that one. His voice is toneless, like he's trying to make sure that it sounds like he doesn't care. "Marion has started dating Alistair, and since he is one of the emcees for trivia, she's not allowed to play because he could be seen as biased towards her."

"So, we don't have a full team?" I ask hesitantly.

Charlotte looks at me disbelievingly. "No! There's a sharp girl two years younger than us, that I did a short-term mentoring with when she was in initiation. She's smart, and even though she wasn't expecting to be on a team, she went to orientation this year. Here she is. Taryn!"

Her curly dark hair is clipped back away from her face. I notice her troubled hazel eyes look hesitantly at Patrick, Ian and me, like she's thinking about bolting at the first sign that one of us doesn't want her there. Automatically, I give her a friendly smile. My Amity training still shows up from time to time without me meaning for it to, but this time it seems to be a good thing. Taryn licks her lips and then relaxes and smiles back, dimples forming on both cheeks.

"Taryn, this is Patrick, Ian and Norton," Charlotte points to each of us as she names us.

The other two give her a quick look of acknowledgment. "Welcome to the team," I say, trying to put her at ease.

 **Some of the read and reviews are a little... different than last time. As I mentioned many of these characters are ancestors for Divergent and Dauntless Gray characters. Many of the read and reviews for this story will be more about them. Things that happen in their life, that Norton didn't witness. If you read The Blackest Shade of Gray, you recognized Marion as Tris's great grandmother. If you read and review this chapter, I will send you Marion's POV for her break up with Patrick.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for your reviews! I'm going to take a brief minute and respond to a few of them.**

 **BK2U noticed I forgot to put in the page breaks! Thank you for letting me know, and if anyone else ever notices that, please make sure to let me know. I'm HORRIBLE about remembering them! (Bahrfamily took over uploading the chapters at on point in time because I was so bad!)**

 **Shori-d gave the first guess for Taryn's descendant. Taryn is actually the great-grandmother of two canon characters! (But not related to her guess.)**

 **azuliara- reread chapter 3 and had a good question, that I want to answer for everyone. One of the journal entries states that Choosing is at 18. That was intentional. I figure that every time there is a reset they would change things in an effort to keep it from happening again. Since the riot occurred because of family ties I tried to think of how they could reduce the family ties. The two ideas that I came up with were to change how easy it is to see family. I made Visiting Day once a month in the past, changed to once a year which is cannon. And also the age of Choosing. Normally 18 is the age of adulthood (at least here in the USA.) Since Choosing is at 16... I thought having a change in age and having people leave their family (if they transferred) at a younger age would help to cut those ties as well.**

 **I realized I keep forgetting an important part. Bahrfamily is still plugging away at Beta duties so you get a better version than if I was doing this alone. We have reduced the number of edits, so somethings may be getting past us, but I'm having problems making myself dwell too long on any one part so... one edit it is! Thank you, thank you Bahrfamily for your work! (And if you see an error we miss, let me know.)**

 **Characters**

 **Charlotte, Ian, and Patrick- friends of Norton's from initiation and members of the Trivia team he is on.**

 **Taryn- introduced in the last chapter. Newest member of the Trivia team, she is a couple of years younger than the rest of the group.**

 **Vanna Dorn- (mentioned) Librarian who recruited Norton to the library and the hidden archive**

 **Graham- Charlotte's father and Norton's initiation mentor**

 **Miranda- (mentioned) head of the library**

 **(3/8/2019)**

 **Chapter 5**

"Does Charlotte really expect us to find the answer on the sheets she assigned each of us?" Taryn asks me as we turn the corner away from the study room we were using.

I smile kindly. "Not only does she expect you to find the answer, but she also expects you to know the answer to each question next week."

Taryn stops in her tracks. "We need to memorize all the answers, too?"

"Overwhelming, isn't it?"

Taryn chews on the inside of her cheek, takes a deep breath, and draws herself up to her full height as she squares her shoulders. "I can do it."

"I'm not doubting that you can do it. Charlotte wouldn't have recruited you for the team if she didn't believe you could do it," I assure her. "The first time she gave me a list, all I did was look up the answers. I didn't work on trying to remember any of them. That was a big mistake."

"Really?" Taryn stops walking and looks at me.

"Everyone else memorized their information. I looked like a fool, when Charlotte was quizzing us, and I was more likely to know the answer to someone else's question, than I was to know a question I was considered to be responsible for!"

Taryn hangs her head for a moment, looking over her list. Her thick curly hair hides her face while she studies her paper. She looks up at me, her hazel eyes worried. "I don't even know where to start."

I take the list from her and look over it. It looks like she got a random sheet much like Charlotte gave each of us the first few weeks while she figured out what kind of data we were most likely to retain. "We can handle this. It's classic Charlotte."

"I don't understand. I haven't known Charlotte as long as you have. What do you mean by 'Classic Charlotte,'?" A wave of three wrinkles spreads across Taryn forehead.

I realize that I tend to forget Amity does more socializing between grade levels than the other factions. Even though I have only known Charlotte since I came to Erudite two years ago, while Taryn grew up here with her, I probably do know Charlotte better. "Charlotte is trying to gage you, to see what you are going to be the best in remembering outside of your area of expertise. What's your job?"

Taryn looks a little embarrassed. "Eventually, I'm going to be a math teacher."

"I should have remembered you were math related. Charlotte had said something about doing some mentoring with you." I shake my head. "You probably won't find many math questions in your list of questions. She assumes that whatever area your job is going to be, you will be the expert on that."

"But… how do I find the answers to everything?" Taryn sounds genuinely concerned.

"Let's head to the library. I can help you with that," I offer.

"You don't have time to help me," she protests. "You have your own list to work on."

I laugh. "Actually, I don't get a list from Charlotte anymore. I **give** a list to Charlotte. Anyway, it's not a big deal to help you find everything. It will be quicker with me than without me."

Taryn looks unsure. "I don't want to be any bother."

"Taryn, do you know what my jobs is?" I ask, fairly confident that she doesn't.

"No."

"I'm a research librarian," I say matter of-factly, enjoying the look of astonishment on her face. "Let's get started on your research."

* * *

"Thank you so much for all of your help. I couldn't have done it without you," Taryn tells me again as we leave the study room Charlotte reserved for our practice together.

"I didn't do anything special." I try to brush off her compliment.

"You did everything!" Taryn protests. "You found the research materials that I needed and let me know that I needed to not just find the answers, but have them memorized. Without you, I wouldn't have been prepared."

"Finding the information is my job. That was nothing, and you did the hard word of memorizing the information." I downplay my part.

Taryn protests. "I would have looked like a fool compared to the rest of the team, without your tip that I was expected to memorize everything. All of you have phenomenal memories! I'm not sure I can keep up."

"You'll do great. Like I told you before, Charlotte wouldn't have recruited you if she didn't believe that you could do it," I encourage her. "And after how well you did tonight, I don't doubt Charlotte's decision."

"Really?" Taryn's smile is framed by her dimples. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm supposed to meet with Vanna- Mrs. Dorn," I correct myself, knowing Taryn will recognize her last name, but not her first, since she was the upper level librarian

Her smile fades and her forehead creases with wrinkles. "Why are you supposed to meet with her?"

"She needs a little help with a school project, and since I used to help her in the library from time to time, she asked me to work on it with her after practice tonight." It's a lie I had practiced and prepared in case Charlotte asked me. I'm actually headed to a Hidden Archivist meeting, the first one I've been invited to join.

"Oh." Taryn sounds a little disappointed. She bends her head to look down at the blue tiled floor and the raises her eyes to me without moving her head. "Do you think you would be able to help me with any of the research I can't figure out on my own tomorrow night? Or will you have to help Mrs. Dorn again?"

"I can meet you tomorrow after dinner," I offer.

The smile, and the dimples, are back. "Thank you!" She takes off to the library while I head down the next staircase to the stacks.

* * *

"What is the radius of a circle which has the area of 1520.53?" Charlotte asks.

"Twenty-two" Taryn answers before I even have the formula written on my paper.

Since Charlotte never bothers to acknowledge a right answer, only a wrong one, she continues on to the next question on her paper without comment. "What type of light wave is longer than visible light?"

"Inferred." All four of us- Taryn, Ian, Patrick, and me- answer in unison.

"What are the three types of a bruise?" She throws out the next question.

"Subcutaneous, Intramuscular, and …" Taryn trails off, unable to remember the third one.

I know it was on her list of things to learn this week. I helped her find the book on it, but with Patrick sitting there about to finish his third year of pre-med and head into actual medical classes, she should have let him answer.

"Patrick, what is the third?"

"Periosteal," He answers quickly.

Charlotte takes her eyes off the list of questions and looks over at Taryn. "If the question is medical and you aren't one hundred percent sure of the complete answer. **Don't answer it**. We have a future doctor on the team; let him get it." She sounds frustrated. "If you answer wrong, Patrick doesn't get a chance at the question."

"And if he's sitting out during that question?" Taryn surprises me by challenging Charlotte, something she never would have done at the beginning of the season.

Charlotte suppresses a groan. "Don't answer it! If someone on the other team only remembers two, and they remember the one you forgot… you may have just given them the right answer.

Taryn nods meekly.

"When you are talking about a solar cell, what does PV stand for?"

"Photovoltaic," I answer without thinking. I just did research on those for Graham last week.

Charlotte beams. "That's what I love about your job. You know the most random things!" She throws a quick look at Taryn and jumps into the next question. "How many chromosomes does a fruit fly have?"

Before anyone can answer it there is a knock on the door. Devon opens the door without waiting for anyone to invite him in. "We have this room reserved."

Charlotte looks at her watch, then peers at him over her glasses. "We have five minutes left. You can wait outside the room."

Devon leaves but doesn't completely close the door.

Charlotte points to the door, making sure we all realize that Devon is listening in. "I guess that will have to be enough for this week. I have a couple of meetings that haven't been set next week. I'll have to get back to you with our next practice time. Here are your papers for it. I'll see everyone tomorrow night for Trivia Night." She starts to pack up her notes.

Taryn grabs her list of questions and flies out of the door so quickly I hear it hit someone who is standing near it.

Charlotte presses her lips together trying not to laugh. I would be, too, but I'm worried about Taryn. She wasn't trying to catch Devon when she barged through the door.

I grab my things and follow behind her. "Taryn!" I call when I realize she is about to enter the staircase.

She pauses, waiting for me to catch up.

"Are you okay?"

She looks away from me; her hazel eyes seem brighter than usual. It takes me a moment to realize she is trying not to cry. "I'm fine. Just trying to get a head start on my paper."

"Would you like any help finding your resources?" I volunteer. The part of me that learned how to be a friendly Amity still pops up when I'm not thinking.

Taryn closes her eyes for a moment and, trying to make it look more like she is stretching than anything else, she swipes her eyes, trying to remove any traces of tears. "That would be great, Norton. Let's get started."

I look down the hallway as I hold open the door for her. As we walk away, I wonder why Charlotte looks so upset, and Ian look, so happy.

* * *

"I've been thinking." Graham slowly rubs his palms together as he speaks to me. "If you are really going to run this faction one day, you need a better idea of how some of the things work around here."

I pull off my glasses and start chewing on the arm. "I don't disagree with that, but I don't know how I'm going to do that, stuck in the library."

Graham smiles broadly. "I do."

I lean forward. "What is your idea?"

"I don't have it all worked out yet," he cautions, "but with your job, all I need to do is point the right people in your direction for research. That will give you the background that you need for some things. I'm hoping that as you prove yourself a more than competent researcher, that people will use you. I've had the thought of letting you go a little further than just doing the research and maybe trying your hand in a little bit of development, but if I do that, you won't be getting the credit if for it, I will. I wouldn't be allowed to let you do more; that could cost both of us our jobs."

Taking a deep breath, I slowly let it out, thinking about what Graham said. "I'm not worried about the credit. Even if people aren't as open to me helping with their job as you are, just to see what they are doing, and maybe work on it on my own time, even if it's only for myself, could help prepare me."

Graham smiles, the slanted corners of his eyes crinkling. "I was hoping you would say something like that."

I look levelly at Graham. "Do you really think that I might end up running the faction?"

"More than I did the day I mentioned it to you. The last couple of initiation groups haven't had anyone who was a stand-out in them. In your group, Charlotte was the closest to your IQ, and her final IQ is just a shade lower than your initial IQ." Graham's smile disappears and he looks at me seriously. "I'm not like my wife and Ian's parents, who think that marriages here in Erudite should be for the sake of IQ and coming up with smarter children, but Norton, if you and my daughter ever got married, your children would be an intellectual force to be reckoned with."

* * *

"I have a good project for you to work on," Graham announces when he finds me in the stacks digging out books for one of the doctors.

"How did you get down here?" I ask.

Graham leans in and whispers conspiratorially, "I've been allowed down in these stacks for as long as I can remember. I have your boss, Miranda, wrapped around my little finger."

"Really?" I look at him disbelievingly. Miranda isn't the type to let anyone wrap her around their little finger.

"I'm her youngest child." Graham smiles at my astonished look.

"I need to get Miranda to let me look in the archive at your family tree," I mutter. "I'm constantly surprised by who I find you are related to."

At this, Graham laughs aloud, "You do that sometime. I'd like to think in another year or two, even without my suggesting it, she'll recruit you for the Archive anyway."

I think of the job I have with the hidden archive and wonder if working in both would be a conflict. "Why do you want her to do that?"

"If you have access to the archive, you can look into what other leaders have done and start studying them," Graham admits.

I pull off my glasses and look at Graham straight in the eye, "If something happens- I mean if you find someone in another initiation class who has a higher IQ than I do- you'll let me know, right?"

"Of course! It wouldn't be logical to allow you to continue to expect and prepare for a job that you aren't going to have." Graham seems surprised that I had to ask.

"Thank you," I pause, wondering how I would take that news, before mentally reminding myself that there is no point in worrying about that before it happens.

"Dauntless has a problem that I've been asked to solve." Graham pulls us back to the reason he's down here. "It will be a good project for you to take as far as you can. I can't get you in on the meetings, or give you the credit, but it will give you at least a taste for working with another faction."

"What do they need?" I pull out the notebook that I carry, along with the pencil that is stuck behind my ear. I carry them at work just in case I come across something that could be beneficial to remember for Trivia.

"Evidently a good portion of Dauntless is underground. They feel that white light is too hard on the eyes. They would like to change to a colored light, but they don't know what color to use. It should be fairly easy research. There is nothing to develop. They just need a recommendation."

* * *

"I'm going to need some colored cellophane or tissue paper," I tell Graham when I find him by himself in the lab.

"That's easy enough." Graham motions for me to follow him. "What do you need it for?"

I pull off my glasses and hold them. "My research yielded pictures that show me what the different colors look like in the dark, but I figure if I'm doing the development part of it as well, then I should see what it looks like."

Graham takes me to a supply room and pulls out a sheet of cellophane in each color I asked for. "Are you sure you don't need any other color?"

"The other colors are secondary colors. I asked for the primary colors because I can make the secondary with them."

"I wish I could have had you in my area instead of the person I picked up." He doesn't mention Ian by name, but he is the only one from my class who went to research and development.

"Really?" I can't seem to overcome the desire to outdo Ian.

"I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but he has a tendency to skip steps. I'm pretty sure when he gets to start requesting research instead of having to do it all himself, that you will get a lot of requests from him, and that if you take it further than is strictly your job… he'll be happy to let you do it."

I can't keep a smirk from developing. "He thinks there's a chance he'll be running this faction one day, and that if he doesn't, his child will."

"Try this, too." Graham hands me a dark light bulb.

I look at it. "A black light? My research shows..."

"Oh, I don't expect you to choose it," Graham admits, cutting me off, "but they can be interesting to look at."

* * *

My original plan had been to use the bathroom after my roommate goes to bed so he doesn't see what I am doing, but after Graham gave me the black light to play around with, I realized that I wanted to go somewhere a little bigger and darker to give me more to see.

The hidden archive seems like the best place to test it out. I can see how easy it is to read with the different lights there, and the white paper should glow under the black light.

I try the flashlight first, trying one color after another to see the difference in how things look.

I save the black light until last, knowing that isn't really what they are looking for. After I turn on the light, I look at my shirt, but it isn't very interesting. It turns out that blue isn't the best color for a black light and I find myself wishing I had something white to wear, since my research talked about how much it glows. I wonder what the white pages of the notebooks will look like. I look up to select a book and do a double take. On the spine of Edith Prior's journal, a single word shines out at me. "Bureau." As if I am in a trance, I walk up to it. Automatically I sanitize my hands and pull it down. I open the book and discover a secret. The first pages aren't blank after all. The pages shine back with the hidden words.

Dumbstruck, I carry the book to the desk and begin to read...

 **If you would like a glimpse into Amanda Ritter/Edith Prior before you read her entry, leave me a review. I'll be happy to send you the peek I have of her preparing to leave the Bureau.**


	6. Chapter 6

**(3/24/2019)**

 **Time got away from me again! Sorry this is a couple of days late!**

 **Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know what you think.**

 **Thank you Bahrfamily, for your continued work as Beta on this story. Especially with real life.**

 **Chapter 6**

The black light gives an eerie glow to the hidden archive room as I begin to read the long-hidden words that glow in the light from Edith Prior's diary.

 _ **They say that confession is good for the soul. Because of who I am and what I have done, I have never been able to confess what happened. I have been unable to tell anyone what I know, the secrets that I alone possess. Tomorrow they will give me the serum that will completely wipe out my memories, but before it happens, I need to receive absolution. I must exorcise the ghosts of my past so that I can move on to a new future.**_

 _ **That is why I am breaking the rules.**_

 _ **I am the last person anyone will suspect of breaking the rules. I know it, and I take advantage of it. I helped to create the rules that everyone who leaves must follow, and yet… yet here I am, breaking my own rule. We are allowed to take nothing with us. Not our families, not our memories, not even our real names. Yet in the journal, I am taking everything with me.**_

 _ **It is ironic, I'm not taking the memories that I would want to take, the happy memories. I'm taking the memories that I am desperate to leave behind, but I can't leave my confession behind, and I know I won't be able to bring myself to destroy it. I can't take the chance that someone will discover these words, these pages, so I will take them with me, and when I am dead and they throw away my journal, these words will be gone forever, and no one will ever know.**_

I sit back in my chair, stunned at her last sentence. This woman was the first leader of Erudite. She was responsible for so much of our faction, and she honestly thought we would just throw her journal away as if it was trash? And yet… Vanna said that her journal was pulled out of the trash. Her words were almost lost.

 _ **I grew up in a world of privilege compared to almost everyone. The Purity War was winding down as I grew up, and my family was on the winning side.**_

 _ **We lived in the compound of what was once Chicago O'Hare, a major airport. There, my mother was the lead scientist and my father was the commander of the armed forces in the area.**_

 _ **Because of their positions we had to be protected. We lived in the compound, with two fences surrounding us, protecting us from those on the other side. There are- there always were- people on the other side of the fence who were on our side of the war, but they were of less importance than my parents and so they lived outside of the compound where life wasn't as safe and ordered.**_

 _ **My father was gone with his troops as often as he was with us.**_

 _ **Mother was always here with my younger brother and me.**_

 _ **My life was... stifling. During the school day, I would listen to my classmates who lived on the outside talking about the freedoms they have. Just being able to cross the street without having to show identification sounded like a dream to me.**_

 _ **Since I was young, everyone expected that I would follow in my mother's footsteps. She was the head scientist. She understood the genetic issues that caused the Purity Wars, and how to heal them, better than anyone else did. Her grasp of biochemistry, and therefore serums, was second to none. She was the one that everyone went to for research and decisions. Every other scientist was under her, including me, after I graduated.**_

 _ **The war ended about the time I graduated. Father was still gone much of the time, finding and fighting the last of the damaged cells of resistance.**_

 _ **When Father was gone, Mother shared everything with me, since I was the oldest. We spent nights at the kitchen table discussing decisions my mother had to make, while my brother studied his lessons. Life should have been perfect.**_

 _ **But I was restless. I longed to be able to go with my friends outside of the compound and see where they lived. I wanted to experience life without all the protection.**_

 _ **I was so excited the day when I was twenty-two and finally got permission to go home with one of my friends for the evening.**_

 _ **If I could go back to that day and stay home, I would. If I had the chance, I would go back to that day, that choice, that changed everything, not just for me and my family, but for everyone in the compound.**_

 _ **My friend lived on her own, and we decided to go to a party. My parents never would have allowed me to go, if they had known that we were going to do that.**_

 _ **There was a young man there, about five years older than I was. He was tall and handsome. I believed he was one of us. I swear he made me think he was on the same side that my family was. I would have never talked to him if I had known the truth. I would have never agreed to sneak out of the compound to see him again, if I had known what he really was. I would have**_ _ **never trusted him, fallen in love with him, if I had known he was damaged.**_

 _ **And I loved him. Oh, how I loved him. I thought he was perfect. He made me believe he was pure.**_

 _ **By day, I trained with my mother; I studied and prepared. I learned and worked. The only person who knew more than me about what was going on, scientifically, in the compound, was my mother. I was preparing daily to step into her shoes.**_

 _ **By night, I found the weak points of the fence. I snuck out. I loved him, and I was desperate to spend time with him. I trusted him. I told him about my day, about where I lived, about where I worked.**_

 _ **He used it against me. Against all of us.**_

 _ **Without knowing what he was, I arranged for him to come into the compound to meet my parents.**_

 _ **Looking back, I should have never done that. I should have realized that if he couldn't get in here on his own, that he shouldn't be in here.**_

 _ **The first time he came, he asked me to give him a tour of the compound, but he left without meeting anyone of my family. Another clue that should have tipped me off that there was something wrong.**_

 _ **The second time he came was a catastrophe. I was supposed to meet him that night outside the compound in one of our meeting places, but there was a last-minute meeting called for the Chicago experiment, and I had to attend it. The meeting should have been over in plenty of time for me to meet him, but it dragged on forever. There were five of us at the meeting. We discussed our way through many of the key rules for the city. The concepts for the factions that we are going to live in were developed that day. We talked about how each Faction will handle initiation, and what will happen to anyone who doesn't pass their chosen faction's initiation. We talked about different ways to set up the city's government, and the possibility of setting up more cities like it. We came to an agreement on almost everything, but the meeting dragged on because of the single issue on which we could not agree.**_

 _ **Ironically, we fought about what everyone is going to be able to take with them. My mother felt that it would be more effective if the people entering the experiment didn't remember life outside of the experiment.**_

 _ **I argued that there is something wrong about taking someone's memories from them, that if you take away someone's memories, you change who the person is.**_

 _ **We never came up with a consensus. Mom was forced to dismiss the meeting because she had another meeting.**_

 _ **Since I wasn't involved in the other meeting, I high-tailed it out of the there so I could get ready for my date.**_

 _ **I was running incredibly late at that time, but since I couldn't wear my Bureau uniform outside, I headed up to our family apartment in the old hotel to change. I was in the elevator, on my way back down, when the caxton noise of the lock down sirens began to sound. The elevator bounced as it stopped. Reflexively, I clapped my hands over my ears. I looked up at the camera in the corner of the car and yelled at it in frustration. "Why today!?" Why didn't Mom tell me we were having a drill today? I would have used the stairs so I wouldn't be stuck here if I had known about it. I grabbed the phone, hoping that I could talk whoever was on the other end into letting my car go on down to the bottom so that when the drill was over I could continue on my way.**_

 _ **As soon as I could tell someone had picked up the other line, I started in a commanding tone I learned from listening to my mother, "This is Amanda Ritter. I need you to allow my elevator to continue to the first floor. I can wait out the drill there."**_

 _ **There was a popping noise, and I realized the truth at the same moment the person on the other side told me.**_

" _ **It isn't a drill!" The line went dead.**_

 _ **I was used to drills. We had them on a regular basis. Dad was paranoid that one day the damaged people would attack us. Actually, I guess Dad wasn't paranoid since they did attack us that day. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to keep myself from panicking.**_

 _ **I looked around the elevator. There was nothing in there I could use to defend myself. I found myself hoping that I was between floors so no one could try to jimmy their way in. I paced around the small cage that I was stuck in. Time crawled by. When the jerk of the elevator told me that whatever had happened was over, I hurried over to the corner, close to the door. It gave me the only possible cover when the door opened. I crouched down, waiting.**_

 _ **When the door opened, there were armed soldiers whom I recognized and who recognized me. They tried to talk me into going back up to our apartment until they had things cleaned up.**_

 _ **I insisted.**_

 _ **I shouldn't have.**_

 _ **It didn't dawn on me at that time that normally they would have told me they had orders from one or both of my parents, since Dad was there that day, and sent me straight upstairs. I was too curious to know what was going on to think about the fact this wasn't normal.**_

 _ **The lighting was eerie. The blue emergency lighting along with the still blinking strobes gave everything an other-worldly look.**_

" _ **Why don't they turn the regular lights back on?" I asked no one in particular.**_

 _ **One of the soldiers who met me at the elevator looked at another soldier and nodded at him. He quickly disappeared in the direction of security.**_

 _ **They listened to me. That should have been my next clue that something was wrong.**_

 _ **There were still bodies, mostly of soldiers, laying where they died. I headed straight down stairs to the meeting room where I last saw my mother, certain that I would meet her or my father between here and there. Halfway down the stairs, the lights flickered from blue to white, although the strobe continued. I shouldn't have said anything about the lights. The blood was much more noticeable on the white walls in the bright white light than it was in the blue. I remember realizing that there must be injured people in the infirmary. There was too much blood on the walls and pooled on the floor to be accounted for by the bodies we passed. The closer we got to the conference room where I left my mother, the more often I saw bodies that weren't soldiers. From the state of their clothes, I realized they must be the damaged who broke in. How close were they to my mother when they were stopped?**_

 _ **We were almost there when I saw his body laying a pool of blood. His eyes found mine. Did he expect me to acknowledge him? Did he think I was going to save him?**_

 _ **I played dumb and asked who he was and what happened to him.**_

 _ **I was told he appeared to be the leader of the attackers. He led them and directed them to some of the most sensitive areas.**_

 _ **He led them to where my mother was.**_

 _ **I directed them to take him to the infirmary once all of our people were taken care of. I told them that no one, except for me, was supposed to talk to him, and that he wasn't to be treated until I spoke to him.**_

 _ **The fact that no one said anything about the fact that it would be up to my mother should have been my final clue about what I was about to find.**_

 _ **I was stunned when I entered the conference room. My knees buckled, and I barely caught myself with the edge of the table.**_

 _ **Fittingly, my hands came back with blood on them, since the blood of everyone in this room, everyone in this building, was on my hands.**_

 _ **Was he the one who killed my parents? I never got a chance to ask him. He died from his injuries because of my order not to treat him until I questioned him. Was it intentional? Did I mean for him to die so he couldn't incriminate me? Or was I so overwhelmed by my parents' deaths and everything that meant, that I forgot about him?**_

 _ **I'm not sure.**_

 _ **What I know is that because of me, he knew how to avoid the cameras outside the complex. He knew how to get to the guards to take them out.**_

 _ **My mother and my father were dead, and it doesn't really matter whether he pulled the trigger or not. I am the one who showed him how to get in. I am the one who showed him where to go. I am the one responsible for not just my parents' murder but for every murder that day.**_

 _ **Did he pick that night to come because I didn't show up like I was supposed to and he thought his cover had been blown? Or did he really care for me, and it was planned for that night when I was supposed to be safe on the other side of the fence? There is still a part of me that would like to think that he did care, but there is no way to know.**_

 _ **In reality, it doesn't matter either way. I am the one who denied him treatment. I am also responsible for the death of the man I loved, the man I mistakenly thought loved me.**_

 _ **The death of both my parents and the man I betrayed them to is on me. The death of everyone who died that day is my fault, but I feel those three the most.**_

 _ **I have lived with this knowledge and the guilt every day since then, as each death haunts both my waking hours and my dreams.**_

 _ **I knew more than any other survivor; they made me the leader that day. I stepped into my dead mother's shoes, even though I am the one who killed her.**_

 _ **In the end, I was the one who made the final decisions as to what would happen to Chicago.**_

 _ **Most of the decisions had been made in that last meeting, but I was the only one from the meeting who survived. I was able to change any decision that I wanted. My mother's memory was so revered at that time, that all I had to do was say that an idea was my mother's and no one would speak against it.**_

I bang my hand on the table in frustration. Vanna had told me they were so thankful that the spill happened on one of the blank pages and that nothing important was lost. She was wrong. This is where the spill happened. The next portion is illegible. Whatever spilled on this priceless document has erased most of Edith Prior's words on the front and back of the page. A word here, a phrase there still survives. I struggle to piece them together.

… _ **Divergent.**_

… _**find the Divergent through the aptitude test. They will be the ones who are aware…**_

 _ **All of our hopes now rest...**_

 _ **Above all…**_

 _ **We need to wipe out ... Divergent.**_

 _..._ _ **our only hope.**_

I stare at the one word that survived that I don't understand. Who or what are the Divergent? I don't pause for long before I struggle through the passage a second and then a third time to see if there are any more words that are legible. There are none until I get to the end of the damaged section.

 _ **The irony is because of her death and my desperate desire to escape the guilt I feel for it, she wins. Everyone who enters the Chicago experiment will have their memories taken away and new ones given.**_

 _ **But I will still get my way. In the Chicago experiment, the one that my brother and I will join, they will take our memories. I don't know if there is anything my brother is so anxious to forget, but I don't want him to ask me, so I won't ask him. The other experiments, the ones that will follow ours, are set to let people remember, so I won the argument. Everywhere that I wanted to.**_

 _ **It's funny to realize that today I remember everything, and tomorrow I will remember nothing, none of my real history. Nothing except for the false history I have created for myself with the help of my brother and some my co-workers. Today, I have my real name and birthdate. Today, I know who my real parents are and the job I have done for the last five years.**_

 _ **There are things that I will remember. Information that is locked in a different part of my brain will be untouched. Today and tomorrow I will know how to tie my shoe, how to type, the formulate equations, and create compounds.**_

 _ **Being single at twenty-six with no children, I am almost too old to be considered for this project, but my fertility test came back excellent, and everyone thinks they understands my reasoning for wanting to go, so they have grudgingly given their consent.**_

 _ **Today in my last official act as the leader of The Bureau of Genetic Welfare, I created a video the Abnegation will hold onto that gives the barest outline of our past and what we are trying to do. I guess preparing for that is what has given me the courage to document my confession. After I completed the video, I stepped down as the leader of the Bureau. Tomorrow I leave everything behind and become one of us.**_

 _ **After today, I will no longer be Amanda Ritter. Tomorrow my name will be Edith Prior, and there is much that I am happy to forget...**_

 **There is a bonus if you review this chapter. Leave me a review and I'll send you the DAMAGED section of the letter, and you can read what Norton missed!**


	7. Chapter 7

_**(4/6/2019)**_

 _ **Thank you, so much for the reviews from the last chapter. I'm glad you all enjoyed the look into what caused Norton to start his quest to destroy the Divergent. As well as the look into Amanda Ritter/Edith Prior's past.**_

 _ **Characters-**_

 _ **Taryn- Newest member of the trivia team**_

 _ **Charlotte- friend from initiation, leader of the trivia team**_

 _ **Miranda- head librarian**_

 _ **Graham- Initiation mentor, Charlotte's father, Miranda's son**_

 _ **Vanna (mentioned)- school librarian, recruited Norton for the Hidden Archive**_

 **Chapter 7**

I look at the blank page in front of me. Finding Amanda Ritter's entry in Edith Prior's diary is by far the biggest thing I've had to record.

And I have no idea what to say about it. I have no idea if I should even say anything about it.

I flip the black light on again and reread the entry, focusing on the words that puzzle me, those fragments of sentences that survived.

 _ **Divergent**_

… _ **find the Divergent through the aptitude test. They will be the ones who are aware**_

… _ **all our hopes now rest…**_

 _ **Above all…**_

 _ **We need to … wipe out …Divergent**_

 _ **Our only hope.**_

I pull out the notebook from my back pocket. What can I record? I must be careful with anything I write down. No one can see my notes until I have a better idea of what they mean. If I write this down, I will need to protect this notebook above all else. Contemplating if I can do that takes me a few minutes, but I must have this information. I must understand what these partial phrases and unknown words mean.

First, I copy down the shattered phrases, hoping that when I write them down, they will make more sense, but it doesn't work.

Next, I reread the whole passage, writing down the terms I am unfamiliar with.

 _ **Purity war**_

 _ **Chicago O'Hare**_

 _ **Airport**_

 _ **Chicago experiment**_

 _ **Bureau**_

 _ **hotel**_

 _ **damaged people**_

 _ **Divergent**_

 _ **Bureau of Genetic Welfare**_

Before I start writing in my archive journal, I need to discover what these words mean and organize what I have learned. Only after I have done this will I be able to figure out what is important to actually record.

 _ **Amanda**_ _ **Ritter**_

My pencil hovers as I try to decide what to write. Do I commit to paper that she was Edith Prior?

Edith Prior. Anything I write about her will have serious consequences. It will be best to leave her as simply Amanda Ritter. I know who I mean, and it will give a small measure of security to know that no one else knows.

 _ **Amanda Ritter was the leader of the organization, the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, which created the idea of our city and the factions in it.**_

 _ **There are damaged people in the world.**_

 _ **Our city was created in response to war. It is supposed to protect us from**_ … Absently I pull off my glasses and reread the damaged part of the entry. After looking at every angle, I decide those that the only logical conclusion is that the damaged and Divergent are the same. The sentence ends with the words that are more secretive: _**the Divergent.**_

 _ **The Factions are designed to make us better people. They are here to help us identify the Divergent.**_

So little information. So many questions.

Do I tell anyone about this?

I don't know. I need to know if this is correct before I tell anyone. I have been told I am an excellent researcher, but I don't even know how I investigate if any of what she wrote is correct.

 _ **Who are the Divergent? They are people who are aware during simulations. They need to be wiped out.**_

I reread what I have written, wondering why they need to be wiped out? What is so wrong with these people?

I ponder the mystery of the hidden journal entry until I am in a daze. Even when I leave the hidden archive, I am affected by it. I am unable to do anything except wander around the lower level stacks. Sometimes movement helps me to think, but today, my thoughts just tumble over each other. I lose all sense of self and time, until my stomach rumbles, making me think I should head upstairs and get something to eat.

"There you are!" Taryn sounds relieved. "Where have you been?"

I blink a couple of times, hoping to bring myself back out of the fog of confusion of what I read and back to reality. "What do you mean, where have I been?"

Her face falls. "Did I have the day wrong? I thought you were going to help me with my research assignment from Charlotte."

"I am," I say, "but that's not until seven."

Taryn tries not to laugh at me. "Norton, it's after eight. What have you been up to?"

I look at her, stunned, and then at my watch. She has to be joking. There is no way that it is that late.

But she isn't joking. It really is ten after eight. "I'm sorry, Taryn. I…" My voice trails off. I can't tell her what happened. No one can know about the hidden archive, and not even the other hidden archivist can know what I've found until I have a better understanding of what it all means.

Taryn tips her head and studies me. "Are you okay, Norton? If we were in Amity, I'd say you've seen a ghost."

I look at her, surprised. I didn't know she knew I transferred from Amity. Before I respond, my mind replays the sentence. If we were in Amity. She doesn't know. "Ghosts aren't logical," I answer as an Erudite.

"Exactly!" Her dimples show as she smiles and looks at me expectantly.

"I'm having problems with a research assignment," I lie, thankful we are Erudite and not Candor. My stomach rumbles again. "Let's get started on your research. We may not get it all finished tonight, but we should be able to make a dent on it, despite my tardiness."

Taryn puts a gentle hand on my arm. "I have a better idea. I managed to find a few books on my own. We can finish tomorrow night. If you are like most the single men in this faction, you have nothing in your apartment to eat. Why don't you come back with me to my apartment, and I'll fix you a sandwich? It won't be as good as a dinner in the cafeteria, but they are closed for the night."

"You don't need to do that for me. I can…" I trail off, trying to think if we have anything to eat in our apartment. My stomach picks this time to rumble again.

Taryn laughs and puts her hand in the crook of my elbow. "Come on, Norton. That stomach of yours is going to keep you awake tonight. Let me feed you."

"I'm sorry it isn't more," Taryn apologizes, putting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cut apple in front of me, "but we don't keep a lot of food in the apartment either."

"It's great," I tell her after I swallow the first bite. "Thank you."

Taryn smiles and blushes. "Are you allowed to talk about what this research project is that you are having problems with?"

"Most projects I can talk about, but this one, I can't." I've never been assigned a project that I couldn't talk about, but I'm not allowed to talk about my work in the hidden archive.

And I may not even tell them.

"Okay." She folds her hands serenely in her lap and watches me eat.

Feeling self-conscious, I pick up an apple wedge. "Would you like one?"

"I don't want to take your food from you," Taryn declines.

I put the apple wedge to her lips and she opens them without thinking. "Take a bite. It's really your food."

She takes a bite and slowly chews it, her cheeks turning a little pink. She jumps at the sound of someone knocking at her door. "I'll be right back."

I take another bite of the sandwich she fixed me, wishing I had milk or some kind of a drink to go with it.

"Now really isn't a good time, Charlotte," Taryn's voice is firm.

"It won't take a minute, I just need to ask you…" Charlotte's voice trails off when she sees me at the table eating. "Hi, Norton. I didn't expect to see you here."

I quickly swallow the bite in my mouth. The bread sticks in my throat causing my voice to croak. "Hi, Charlotte."

"What are you doing here?" Charlotte sits down at the table in the seat next to me, the one that Taryn vacated to answer the door.

"I got wrapped up in some research and missed dinner. When Taryn found me, she offered to feed me."

Taryn sits down on my other side. "Norton is helping me do some research. The least I can do is feed him." She reaches over my plate and takes the apple wedge that she had already taken a bite from off my plate and takes another bite, before setting it down on my plate again.

Charlotte looks at my plate. "You didn't get him a drink?"

Taryn springs up heading back to her kitchen. "Norton! Why didn't you say anything?"

When she is out of the room, Charlotte leans in and speaks low to me. "Don't play with her, Norton."

I feel my brow pull in with confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"She's my friend, Norton, and she likes you. I don't want to see her hurt. Don't play with her emotions."

I try not to laugh at Charlotte since I can tell how serious she is, but what she is implying is ridiculous. "Charlotte, Taryn and I are friends, just like you and I are. There's nothing more to it."

Charlotte gives a choked laugh as Taryn walks in. "What's so funny?" She puts a bottled lemon-lime drink in front of each of us.

Standing quickly, Charlotte leaves the unopened bottle on the table, "Nothing. I need to go."

Taryn doesn't try to stop her, but walks her to the door. "I thought you needed to talk to me."

"Oh, yeah." Charlotte pauses with her hand on the doorknob. "I just wanted to let you know that Mother invited Ian and me to breakfast tomorrow morning, so don't wait for me."

My gut twists at her announcement. Her mother barely looked at me the few times I've met her. She fawns over Ian. I don't like the idea of them going over there for breakfast. It's entirely too… cozy.

I start with the dictionary. I don't really expect to find anything there, but I don't have much time before Taryn will be here and I want to feel like I am doing something towards finding out about the mystery I uncovered last night.

 _ **Purity War-**_

I don't find the first phrase as an entry, so I put the definition of each word next to it.

 _ **The condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that debases, pollutes etc.**_

 _ **A state or period of armed hostility or active military operations.**_

Chewing on the arm of my glasses, as I reread the definitions. Obviously, there was a conflict, a war that caused the creation of the factions. Well, since we have always been told that the factions were created to end conflict that makes sense. It's the purity part that doesn't make sense to me. Freedom from anything that…

"HI, Norton!" I snap the notebook closed at the sound of Taryn's bright voice. "I'm sorry, is now not a good time? Were you working on something important?"

"No," I lie, sticking the notebook in my breast pocket, "I was just reviewing some notes while I waited for you. Let me see your list."

"The ones with stars next to them I found answers for yesterday when I was waiting for you. I listed the resource that I used…" Taryn looks unsure as she hands me her list.

I look over it. She finished just over half her questions by herself, something she wouldn't have been able to do in the hour that I was late when we first started. Looking over her resources, I realize she checked the same places that I would have. "Nicely done."

Taryn's cheeks turn a light pink. "Thank you. I've had a good teacher."

"You're getting good enough that I don't know if you are really going to need my help much longer," I try to encourage her.

She panics. "No! These next ones I don't have any clue on. I still need you."

"I'm not going to quit until you are ready," I reassure her.

She relaxes. "Where do you want to start?"

"Norton?" I look up to see Miranda, the head librarian standing there. "Are you working right now?"

"No, I'm helping Taryn do research for our Trivia Team."

Miranda rubs her palms together like her son, Graham, does. "Can I borrow you for just a minute or two? I certainly don't want to interrupt your studying for Trivia. My granddaughter would never forgive me."

"Sure, give me just a second." I look over Taryn's list. "Start with 638 for the question on bees. There are a couple other places it could be. I'll meet you there."

"I'll see you there," Taryn responds as she walks off.

As soon as she is out of earshot, Miranda turns to me. "One of the archivists is retiring from the position due to health reasons. I have a short list of candidates that I'm thinking of replacing her with. Would you be interested in the position?"

I am stunned into silence. Graham had mentioned that in a couple of years, he hoped I would be chosen for the Archive, but I certainly didn't expect anything this soon.

Evidently, Miranda takes my silence as being unfamiliar with the job, so she starts to tell me about it. "The archive is a restricted collection. The job is twofold. One part is to research items that are requested from the archive. The other part of the job is to decide which items we should retain for the archive and to categorize them."

"Yes, I'm interested," I say as soon as she pauses, afraid that she took my shock as being disinterested in it.

"Great. I'll be meeting with you and the two other candidates tomorrow at one. Does that work for you?"

"Yes, absolutely." I try to stay calm.

"Good. I'll see you then." Miranda heads toward her office.

Waiting until she is out of sight before I smile, I head off to find Taryn.

"What did she want?" Taryn asks as soon as she sees me.

"She has a job opening in a restricted collection, and she wanted to know if I was interested in interviewing for the position." I can't keep the pride out of my voice.

Taryn beams her dimpled smile at me. "Norton! That's wonderful! Congratulations!" Her excited whisper would be just a shade too loud if there was anyone else in the area. "We need to celebrate!"

I shake my head with a silent laugh. "I don't have the job yet! That might be a bit premature, and anyway, we need to get your research finished so you will be ready for practice."

"You'll get it," Taryn says confidently showing me the book she has selected to find her next set of answers. "We'll celebrate then."

Miranda gives us four days of access to the archive. Since she doesn't have a research project for us to work on, she assigns us the task of creating an idea for the library's lecture series and develop the first lecture.

My fingers pause after her name. Edith Prior. I know what I want to put in on the search. I want to type in the Chicago, but I haven't told anyone, not even Vanna, what I found in the hidden archive yet. According to her, they erased my parents from the real archive. That makes me wonder if they keep track of the searches. I don't know what would happen if I put in a nonsense word like "Chicago." And yet, if I don't get the job, this is my only chance to try to find out more about it.

Edith Prior Chi

That would bring up any mention of Chicago and also children. If I'm going to do a lecture series on the leaders of Erudite, starting with Edith Prior makes sense, and looking up her children would be expected.

I look at the results on the screen. Edith Prior had two children with her husband. I make note of their names and how old she was when each of them was born.

I still don't have any idea who, what, or where Chicago is.

Miranda looks up from the report I turned in yesterday to start my interview. "How did you decide what to do your research project on?"

"I didn't have much time, but I took a quick poll of my friends and the people that I helped during my floor time the day before we got access to the archive. I had three different ideas for lectures that would involve research in the archive. I asked them what they would be most interested in learning about. The history of how the factions were set up, learning about the Erudite leaders through the years, or the steps for accessing family tree information from the archive. The leaders were the most popular answer. It's a lecture series, I figured it would be best to make sure that it is something that people would come to." Truthfully, although, I asked people what they would like to learn about, I picked those three ideas because they are the most likely to help me discover more about either my past or what I learned in the hidden archive.

Miranda smiles at me, and continues on with her questioning. "Let's talk about your research."

"Norton," Graham catches me walking between the library and the cafeteria the day after my interview, "I'm supposed to meet with Dauntless tomorrow. I know you've been busy getting ready for your big interview, but do you have any suggestions for the lighting in the Dauntless compound?"

I stop dead in my tracks. How could I have forgotten? I talk my way through what I found in my research and my trial in the hidden archive that led me to the discovery of the hidden entry in Edith Prior's Diary. "Red is the best color to preserve night vision, but it is the toughest one to actually be able to actually be able to see to be able to do anything. Yellow isn't that much different than white light. Purple has a tendency to be dark, like red it is harder to actually be able to see details. Green and blue are very similar. You can see better than red, and it preserves your night vision better than white or yellow. Orange is a mix, as we both know, of red and yellow. It tends more to the yellow it doesn't preserve night vision as well as it allows you to see."

"So, is orange your recommendation." Graham doesn't wait for my answer, but starts to walk off.

"No." I stop him with a word. "Blue."

Graham turns to me, surprised. "Blue. If orange has the best of both worlds, why blue?"

"Two reasons. You have to watch the shade of orange: too dark and it's like red, hard to see; too light and it's like yellow, no preservation of night vision. Blue," I remind him, "causes the mind to release calming chemicals, and if any faction can use calming, it's Dauntless."

A slow smile spreads across Graham's face. "And how would you present the information to the Dauntless Leaders, if it were up to you?"

"After researching your question about the best light to use in the dark areas, my recommendation is blue."

Graham looks at me expectantly, like he is waiting for me to go on.

When I go on, it is for him only. "That's all. I wouldn't say any more than that. They are Dauntless, not Erudite. They aren't going to question why. They are going to take your recommendation. If they do ask why… tell them that it is the best compromise between preserving night vision and being able to see in the dark."

Graham is quiet for a moment, long enough that I'm expect him to tell me that won't work. Instead, he laughs. "You know, in all the work I've done for Dauntless, I think you are right. They never have asked me to explain why I gave a recommendation. I'll try it." He walks off again, and then suddenly turns around. "Congratulations."

"For coming up with a color?" I ask perplexed.

Graham grins at me. "No, you'll know why soon enough."


	8. Chapter 8

_**(4/19/2018)**_

 **Thank you to jvoosen, DarkWynd, Tricsha Wren, and BK2U for reviewing the last chapter. It always helps me, as an author, to know there are people out there reading it, and what they think.**

 **Anonymous Girl Gamer if you are reading this, thank you for your review to Random Voices Divergent. I tried to respond to you, but you don't have PM so... The Random Voices/Moments aren't finished. I use them though more when I have writers block or I'm between stories. There are more written, but most of them I'm not completely happy with so they are drafts and not ready to publish yet.**

 **Thank you to Bahrfamily for taking the time to look over and do Beta duty on yet another chapter! I appreciate your hard work, feedback, and encouragement.**

 **Chapter 8**

"Edith Prior served as the leader of Erudite until her death. Her sound logic and reasoning were always considered to be the hallmarks for both the woman and the Faction that she designed at the founding of our city. As you have heard, much of not just our own faction, but the entire faction system that governs all of us, Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and of course Erudite itself, owes its very existence to our first leader, Edith Prior."

I look around at the front row, my cheering section. Charlotte and Taryn both sit there, beaming at me. Ian has a grudging look of admiration. Marion, whose hand rests on Alistair's leg, smiles encouragingly. Only Patrick is missing, having told me that he was sorry that he would miss my lecture, but that he has an important test tomorrow and needs to study. Privately, I wonder how much of it is that he really needs to study and how much is that he didn't want to have to face sitting with Marion and Alistair.

Miranda walks over from the side. "Thank you, Norton." She turns to the audience. "Norton not only is the instigator of our lecture series on the leaders of Erudite, he is also our newest Archival Librarian. If anyone is interested, there are refreshments in the lobby area. Just remember, they stay in the lobby! No sneaking them into the library."

There is a slight chuckle and the audience begins to move from their seats. I turn to Miranda. "How do you think I did?"

"I think," Miranda's slanted brown eyes twinkle, "that I am very glad I listened to my son and granddaughter and not to my daughter-in-law!"

Charlotte comes up and hugs me, announcing as she releases me. "Wasn't I right, Grandmother? He's perfect for the job!"

Miranda smiles, but shakes her head fondly. "He did a very nice job."

Taryn claims me next. "He did better than nice! I had no idea that Edith Prior was so involved in the development of all the factions. I mean, she helped write all of the faction manifestos! They are all so different, each one representing the voice of the faction. It is astounding to find out that one person connected to all of them."

Marion is slightly more subdued when she gives me a much shorter hug than either Charlotte or Taryn did. "I appreciate the fact that you added in her personal life. I knew a lot of the information about her professionally. I did a report on her in Summer School one year, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find anything on her husband and children."

"That's the advantage of having the Archive to do your research," I answer smugly.

* * *

"Are you doing anything tonight?" Taryn shifts nervously from one foot to the other.

"No, do you need help with your research?"

Taryn licks her lips. "I told you we would celebrate when you got your new job. I pulled out the recipe my grandmother passed on to me for cake, and I made you one. Do you have time to come by and eat it?"

My mind turns instantly to Mama's strawberry short cake, a dessert I have yet to see here in Erudite. I doubt it is that type of a cake, but if Taryn went to the trouble to make me something for my promotion, I'm certainly not going to offend her by turning it down. "I don't have anything going on except starting my research on the next Erudite leader, but since the date for that lecture hasn't been set yet, I can make the time."

Taryn's dimples break out again. "Let's go. It should still be a little warm, and that is the best time to eat it."

We head off to her apartment. I struggle to think of something to talk to her about. Inspiration finally hits when I think about her job. "How close are you to starting teaching?"

"It feels like it will be a long time, but really, I don't have that much longer. Another year of advanced math, teaching theory and classroom management, then a year of shadowing the math teachers, then a year of supervised teaching. Well, hopefully, only a year of supervised teaching. If you don't have a successful year, then they continue to supervise you until either they decide you can handle it, or they decide to remove you from teaching." A worried look crosses her face.

"I'm sure you won't have any problems with that." I notice again that she brings out the Amity in me. I want her to feel good about her abilities.

"How much training did you have?" She steers the subject away from herself.

"My training was all on the job. I have to admit there are times I've been envious of Marion and Patrick continuing their studies."

Taryn interrupts me. "But you get to study all the time! And you get to learn about different things."

I laugh as I hold open the door to her apartment building. "You sound like Charlotte. When I ended up with the job in the library, she said the same thing, and then promptly recruited me for her trivia team. You aren't planning on starting your own team, are you?"

Taryn's hazel eyes widen in surprise as we enter the elevator. "Goodness no! I could never put together a team like she has. She puts so much time and energy into trivia. I don't know how she comes up with all those questions for us to look up and learn."

Even though the elevator is empty, I lean in conspiratorially to answer her. "She doesn't come up with all of those questions on her own. There is an official study guide for trivia put out each year. She uses that to come up with most of the questions, and of course, when I come across something interesting in my research, I write it down."

The doors open and Taryn leads the way out. "Is that why you always know where to find everything?"

"No!" Even to me, my voice sounds offended. "I'm good at my job."

"I didn't mean to imply that you weren't!" Taryn looks concerned that I thought that. She licks her lips. "I…"

Stopping by her door I reassure her. "It's okay, Taryn. I know you didn't mean it that way. I'm used to Ian's snide remarks and reacted like it was him, instead of you."

She opens the door and lets me in. "What does he have against you?"

"He's jealous of my job," I say with a laugh.

Taryn laughs, too. "Seriously," she points to a place set at the table, and walks back to her kitchen area.

I sit down at one of the places set with a plate, fork, and a glass, "I have no idea."

"He almost acts like he's jealous," she calls out from the kitchen.

"I think my job is the only thing he has to be jealous of, so that must be it." I don't feel comfortable telling her that I really think it has something to do with Charlotte.

Taryn gives me an appraising look as she sets the jug of milk down first and then uses both hands to place the cake on the table. "You and I both know that isn't it. He spends too much time bragging about his job for that to be the reason."

I shrug noncommittally. "If it isn't my job, I haven't been able to figure out what it is."

"Maybe he's jealous of how good you are at trivia," Taryn speculates as she serves each of us a piece of cake and pours milk.

"Milk?" I ask her, surprised it isn't a lemon lime drink since we are celebrating.

Her dimples show as she responds brightly, "Trust me, you are going to want the milk."

Wondering what she means I take my first bite. I have never tasted anything so moist and so rich. She laughs when, after the second bite, I pick up the milk and take a long drink.

* * *

 _ **Divergent-**_

 _ **Diverging; differing; deviating.**_

 _ **Pertaining to or causing divergence.**_

 _ **(of mathematical expression) having no finite limits.**_

I review al l three definitions that I wrote down for the word.

Why would they give the name Divergent to someone who is so dangerous?

I try to think about what else was in the entry. Amanda Ritter wrote that she thought he was perfect, pure. Like she and her family were. Both her brother and she came to the city. So those who came to the city must perfect.

She mentions the man that she loved being damaged. Damaged compared to perfect could make him different, deviated, Divergent?

Pertaining to or causing divergence? Could being damaged cause a divergence? It would make them different.

If it is, then the Divergent must be people like him, people who are violent and damaged.

I ponder this, letting it simmer in my thoughts. Yes, the people who came to the city like Amanda Ritter and my ancestors were perfect. They left behind a world that is damaged. People who are Divergent.

And we must protect our perfection from them.

* * *

I stretch my neck, and look back down at today's Erudite paper. Today it is my turn at one of the most tedious of the Archivists' task: reading through the day's paper and creating a reference for each article to go into the online database so that it can be found when it is needed.

Tennyson, the middle-aged Archivist who is responsible for checking over my work and inputting it into the computer today, stretches. "I need to take a break. I'm going to go on ahead and get lunch. If you finish, or decide to go to lunch before I get back, just leave what you have done by the computer and I'll look over it."

Part of me wants to take my break at the same time, but I notice he has turned his back on his unlocked computer. "I will." I pretend to look back down at my paper, but I keep an eye on him as he leaves the room with the computer unlocked.

As soon as the door clicks shut behind him, I move to his computer. I don't know that they track our searches, but I don't know that they don't. I need to do this quickly, and then lock the computer and go to lunch myself. If I'm lucky, no one will realize that I used Tennyson's log in. If he gets in trouble, I'll know that they are monitoring it. If no one says anything… maybe it is safe for me to do my research under my log in.

I type in the word that I'm the most curious about, wanting to know if my theory is correct. "Divergent."

I grip the sides of the table, my knuckles turning white from the pressure while I wait on the search. It only takes a couple of moments for the search to come back empty.

There are no records in the official archive relating to Divergent.

* * *

The double desk in the Hidden Archive looks like a strange card game. My handwritten index cards nearly fill the surface. Columns of varying lengths moving from left to right. The column on the far left represents things I am certain of, cards like, _**There is no record or Divergent, Chicago, O'Hare, or the Bureau of Genetic Welfare in any of the Archival Records. There are pure, perfect people in the world, and damaged people.**_

On the far right, I have my conjectures. Things I have gleaned from Amanda Ritter's diary, Vanna's journal, and my mother's. It has cards such as, _**Chicago is a place outside the fence.**_

I have set aside this evening to review all the information I have. I need to decide if I have enough information to talk to the Hidden Archivist about what I have found, or if I need to drop this quest and let different generation rediscover the words of Amanda Ritter.

I pick up the next card. _**Before the Factions were formed, there was a war called the Purity War. The war was between damaged people and people who were pure. The people who were pure won it.**_

I take off my glasses and chew on the arm of the glasses while I read over it again, unsure of where to put this one. Amanda Ritter doesn't outright say this, but I feel that it is implied strongly enough that I can call it a fact. I don't put it on the far left, but on the second row from the left.

 _ **Amanda Ritter was pure. She came into the city as Edith Prior.**_ This card makes it to the far left.

 _ **The Divergent are damaged and must be destroyed.**_

If the Divergent are damaged and Amanda Ritter came into the city, then we must be a refuge for the pure.

 _ **The Divergent can be found through the Aptitude Test, because they will be aware.**_

I was not aware during my Aptitude Test. I am not Divergent. If they have told us how to find these people, they must be worried that some of the damaged people, some of the Divergent have or will slip into our city.

I look at another card that I already placed towards the left side. It comes from the damaged section of the journal. I'm confident in it, but not as sure as I would like to be. _**We need to wipe out (the damage in our world, the) Divergent.**_

I focus at the words I guessed at in parenthesis. Amanda Ritter talks about the damaged people losing the war, and that her father was trying to wipe out the damage that still existed.

If I am right, and damaged people, Divergent people, live outside of the city, then the fence must be part of our protection to keep them out.

If Amanda Ritter has told us how to tell if someone is Divergent, they must be worried that they can get into our city…

I need to figure out what we need to do to keep them out, and how to use the Aptitude Test to discover if any of them have managed to get inside…


	9. Chapter 9

_**(05/03/2019)**_

 _ **Thank you to jvoosen, Not So Cliché, and BK2U for taking time to review the last chapter. I appreciate you taking your time to let me know your thougths on the chapter.**_

 _ **This chapter includes a "Read and Review" offer at the end. It's a little different than the normal one! It's not a point of view this time!**_

 **Chapter 9**

"I have a question for you," I whisper to Vanna as I hand her the newspaper articles she had requested from the archive for a Faction History class.

"When are you off today?" Her voice softly echoes mine.

"In just under an hour."

Vanna gives me a smile. "I'll see you then."

We don't name a meeting place. We both know if I am whispering about it, it has to do with the Hidden Archive.

The last hour of my shift goes by quickly. My only explanation is nerves. I'm not sure exactly how to ask Vanna my question. Even when I am pulling back the bookshelf that conceals the archive, I'm still not sure how I'm going to phrase it.

She sits at the double desk, writing in her journal when I come in. "What's your question?" She asks without even looking up from her writing.

"When an Archivist discovers something, like the change in government or that I existed, what happens?" I try to keep my question vague enough that she has no idea what I really discovered.

Time seems to stop while she decides how to answer me. "When the room was rediscovered, the first person found every archivist they could- that would be everyone except for your mother- and we met in the room and binge read everything."

"Did you tell anyone outside of the Hidden Archive?" I can't stop myself from interrupting her.

Vanna shakes her head, "No, we never tell anyone outside the archive what we find."

"Why not?" I can't stop myself from asking.

"What good would it do?" Vanna's gaze on me is steady. "No one would believe us. It wouldn't change anything."

I glance at Edith Prior's diary, thinking about the possible truth I have discovered in there. If I tell them, the only thing that is going change is I won't be the only one to know. We won't do anything about the Divergent. Not only will they not tell anyone, but we won't prepare for them to attack our city. We won't hunt for them to make sure they aren't in our city. And if they are in our city, we will do nothing to destroy them.

I am on my own. The only way to make sure that we are protected from the Divergent is for me to become the leader of Erudite.

* * *

I create my own notebook, separate from the one I keep for the hidden archive. I have no one to share my findings, so I don't want anyone to find my notes. As I get what I know and what I think I know written down in this notebook, I will destroy the rest of my notes. If I ever share what I know in my lifetime, I want it to be on my terms.

 _ **O ek aqold rfoq ru fobi rfi qizpirq O boqzusip. Wkat ev pita eq Agewk Rteit'v geutb wkuq uqbiqa mqiyv.**_

I look over the code I have created. It is simplistic. If I was in Amity, I wouldn't be worried, but this is Erudite. I worry that someone will be able to break it quickly, but I don't want to make it so difficult that I have problems reading it myself.

Even though I have decided not to reveal the truths I have discovered in Amanda Ritter's diary, it doesn't mean that if something happens to me, that I want them to be lost forever. Someone else needs to be able to find this. Hopefully that person will be strong enough and determined enough to take over for me.

I chew on the arm of my glasses, thinking about my conclusions and where I need to go from here.

I need to figure out how to protect our city from the outside world.

I need to find out if anyone is aware during the Aptitude tests.

And then I need to figure out how to get rid of someone who is aware.

* * *

Patrick pulls me aside after our latest Trivia win, as Marion starts heading towards us. I wonder if he really wants something, or if what he wants to do is avoid Marion, "How do you request information from the archive?"

"What do you need from the archive?" I can't stop myself from asking.

"We're supposed to start thinking about what we would like to specialize in. I know I don't want to be in general practice. I want to do something where I can make more of a difference. I want to look over the death certificates to see what people are dying from. I don't want to be a strict researcher, like Alistair is."

"Is that what he does?" I don't realize until Patrick mentions it, that I don't know what Alistair does, besides MC Trivia games and lectures.

"Yes, he studies illnesses, creates treatments, and is part of the team that does autopsies." Patrick shudders. "I want to work with the living, not the dead."

"And you're ok with working with Alistair?" I ask, genuinely curious.

Patrick smiles. "I like Alistair. Marion and I were two old friends who tried dating, and it didn't work for us. The problem is that she always looks at me like she feels sorry for me. I don't want her to feel sorry for me, so it's just easier not to be around her. If I was dating someone, I don't think I'd have so much of a problem with being around her. It's her pity I can't handle, not her happiness."

I tuck that piece of information away. I'm not sure when I'm going to need it, but it is good to know.

"About the archive…" Patrick steers me back to his issue.

"All you need to do is fill out the online application; it gets routed to Miranda. Is there any kind of a rush on it? I can let her know it is there, if you need it quickly."

"No, I have some time before I need to give a decision."

A sudden thought dawns on me. Whoever gets this assignment is going to have a reason to look at the death certificates. Vanna said they never found my parents, but I'd like to try to find them for myself. "You can request an archivist if you want someone in particular to do it."

Patrick laughs. "Are you volunteering, or asking me to find someone else?"

"Volunteering. It sounds better than the research on the relationship between head circumference at birth and IQ. That's what is rumored to be coming up."

"I'll be sure to ask for you," Patrick promises. "It looks like Marion is hanging around to talk to you. I better be going."

He's right, because as soon as he leaves, Marion excuses herself from talking to Charlotte and comes over and joins me. "Do you have any plans for next Saturday night?"

I pull off my glasses and think about think about it, while I chew on the arm, "I work until seven, but I don't have any plans after that."

"Perfect!" Marion beams. "Since Alistair and his friends aren't able to participate in Trivia, they have their own game that they play. It's Geo-Search. They told me to invite some of my friends, so they have some new people to beat. Can I talk you into joining us?"

"As long as they aren't serious about us losing," I laugh, certain that she has asked Charlotte, and we both know Charlotte doesn't like losing.

* * *

Saturday night, the last thing I do on my shift is comb through the archive pulling the death certificates. Patrick asked for ten years, but I pull twenty. My best guess is that my parents would have died in the last twenty years. If someone calls me on it, I'll just claim that it was a typo, or I misunderstood, or that I figured Patrick would appreciate the extra information. It will just depend on who it is who asks. I finish loading the certificates for Patrick on a portable drive so he can look over them at his leisure. I wish I dared to make myself my own copy, but maybe if I don't pass Patrick's off until Monday, I can find a way to make a copy of the files before I give it to him.

With that finished, I head out to the library lobby to meet the group that is involved in the Geo-search. Close to two dozen young people around my age mill around. Seeing Charlotte, Ian, Taryn and Marion together, I wander over to join them. "I was just telling them," Marion tells me as soon as I am in earshot, "that this is a couples' competition. Those of us who are dating someone are with our partner, and all the rest of the men have their name put in a drawing. Each woman pulls out a name and that is her partner for the night. Each pair is given an envelope with a different clue to a location in the city. You have to figure out the clue, find the location, answer the question there, and then pick up the next clue. The last clue will bring everyone back here. Then we compare the answers and see who is the victor for the night."

I can already see the sparkle of competition in Charlotte's brown eyes. "Is there a prize?"

"Just bragging rights," Marion gives a small laugh, "but you will fit in with this group. They take their bragging rights very seriously."

"Marion!" Alistair motions to Marion.

She waves back to him, before turning to us. "I'll see you all later." She walks over to him; when she gets to him, he wraps an arm around her and pulls her in for a kiss.

"Time to start!" Sage, the youngest initiation mentor yells to get everyone's attention. She holds up a sapphire blue plastic bowl. "Gentleman, come on up and put your name in the bowl!"

About a dozen of us come forward. Each of us writes our name on a sky-blue piece of paper, folds it once widthwise, and hands it to Sage. When Ian, the last one in line, hands her his name, she puts the papers in the bowl and mixes them around. "Ladies, your turn! Come on up and pick a partner."

Now it is the ladies' turn to surge forward. I glance at Ian from the corner of my eye. I know we are both hoping that Charlotte will be the one to pick our name. Taryn picks first. "Ian!"

Ian tries hard to look happy, but the quick look he throws me lets me know he is not happy that Charlotte could pick my name and not his. It comes down to the wire before my name is chosen. Charlotte and woman with medium brown hair and a longish nose are the last two. The other woman pulls it out first. "Norton!"

I school my features. So close to working with Charlotte. The look on Ian's face is jubilant as he stands next to Taryn.

I walk up to my partner and extend my hand to shake hers. "I'm Norton."

She takes my hand in her soft one. "Bea."

I tilt my head slightly, and look at her. Bea sounds more like an Amity name to me than an Erudite, but she doesn't look familiar from my childhood. I can't keep myself from observing, "That sounds like an Amity name."

She screws up her nose, making it look a little shorter. "I know. I actually came from Abnegation, but I like Bea better than my full name. Beatrice. I don't know what my parents were thinking!"

* * *

"You got me twenty years?!" Patrick works hard to keep his voice low, but the excitement in it is unmistakable.

"I thought you might like more."

"Absolutely! I thought I was pushing it asking for ten years. I never dreamed that I could get twenty!" His blue eyes shine with excitement.

I smile at him, glad that my gamble paid off. "You never know if you don't ask."

I'm about to slip away and leave him engrossed in his research when I hear my name. "Norton!"

I look up and see Bea walking towards us. "Hi, Bea. What are you up to?"

Bea points to the computer station with the out-of-order sign on it, next to us. "I work in IT. I'm here to look at the computer."

Patrick looks up from the screen, and I introduce them. "Bea, this is one of my friends, Patrick. Patrick, this is Bea. She was my partner for Geo-search last week."

Patrick holds out his hand. Bea takes it and they shake. "Nice to meet you."

"You should come play sometime." Bea invites him with a smile.

"Maybe," Patrick responds, noncommittally. I think he realizes that if he wasn't invited to it, it probably means that Marion is involved.

"It's a lot of fun. Norton and I didn't win, but I saw more of the city in one evening than I think I had seen before that." Bea sits down at the broken computer and types in some commands. While she is waiting for them to run, she looks over at Patrick's screen. "What are you looking at?"

"Death certificates," Patrick answers without looking up.

Bea shudders. "That's morbid."

Patrick marks his paper with the cause of death and moves on to the next one. "I guess you could say that, but I'm studying to be a doctor and I'm looking for a field that I can help bring down the mortality rate."

"Fair enough," Bea responds and turns to her computer. The two of them work away and I turn to leave. I don't think either of them need me. Before get two steps away, Bea stands and pats her pocket. "That information wouldn't happen to be on a drive, would it?"

"It is." Patrick looks up from his screen, "Why?"

"Can I borrow it? I need to test a drive on this computer and I forgot mine."

"Sure." Patrick closes down the file and removes it.

"You're a life saver." Bea plugs it into the computer she's working on.

I head off to the reference desk to pick up my next assignment.

* * *

"Why is Bea asking about Patrick?" Marion startles me.

I look up from the monitor I am using for my research. "I don't know. Why are you asking me?"

Marion sits next to me. "Because besides myself and Alistair, you're the only person I know who actually knows both of them."

I sit back in the chair and take off my glasses. "I guess I did unintentionally introduce them about a week ago."

Marion's eyebrows shoot up. "Unintentionally?"

"A couple of days after we did the Geo-search, I gave Patrick some research he had requested from the Archive. Bea was assigned to fix the computer next to him. She came by and I introduced them."

"Now she wants to invite him to Geo-search." Marion sighs.

"What's wrong with that?" I chew on the arm of my glasses.

"Patrick is always so awkward around me. I feel bad for breaking up with him, but…"

I finish for her. "You and Patrick were two friends who tried dating, and it didn't work. Patrick told me that. He also told me that you look at him like you feel sorry for him. That's why he avoids you. If he was dating someone else would you feel bad for breaking up with him?"

Marion thinks for a little bit. "I guess if I knew he was happy, I wouldn't feel bad."

"He told me he likes Alistair and that he's glad you're happy, but he can't handle your pity." I look pointedly at Marion. "Geo-Search is an unofficial mixer to meet people of the other sex, isn't it?"

She laughs. "You're the first one to call me on it, but yes, it is."

"So, invite him to play. Maybe he and Bea will hit it off, maybe they won't, and he'll meet someone else." I shrug. "Hopefully he can find someone, then you can both go back to being friends again."

* * *

" _May I speak to Norton, please?"_ The woman's voice has a familiar echo in my mind. It is one of those times where my memory strains unsuccessfully to place a whisper from a forgotten past.

I look up at her. She has brown hair, tinged with gray. "I'm Norton. How can I help you?"

She holds out her hand. "My name is Phyllis, I was told by Miranda that you are currently the Archivist on duty."

I take her hand and shake it. Her long fingers wrap around my hand, making me think about the classical piano player that they showed on the screen during the lecture on increasing children's intelligence. "Phyllis." I repeat her name to help me remember it, and also because the name sounds familiar.

"I write about the council meetings for the newspaper. There will be two new council members next month. I'm here to request all their information from the archive." She slides a piece of paper to me.

I take the paper from her and look over the request, scanning it for Miranda's signature and wondering if there is anything in it that will help me with my search for my past. I look up at her, at her brown eyes ringed with navy frames, and I realize there is. I work hard to keep the excitement out of my voice. "Depending on how much there is to find, I should have it for you by the end of the day tomorrow."

Phyllis laughs. "You'll have it before then. Normally there is nothing at all interesting in the Councilors' backgrounds. They don't want them to have anything they can be blackmailed for, but I've managed to derail a couple of nominations. We'll see if we can find anything this time."

I watch her leave the room and look over her signature again. Phyllis Anderson: my aunt. A new name to research.

* * *

I pull up the archived copies of the death certificates again. This time, I'm looking for something I know is there. Patrick asked me to check the death certificates to make sure I hadn't skipped any. He watched the dates as well as the reason for death, and he discovered that an average of three people die each week.

With that fact, the chance of going a week or two without a death isn't very good, but he found a time frame, when we were four years old, that the city went just over two months without a death.

I carefully double-check the originals. I didn't miss any, and there is the gap. I look at the death certificate before the gap. It was a woman who died of cancer. The certificate that ends the gap is a man who died of a heart attack. How many people died in between those two dates? They hid more than just my parents' deaths. I am suddenly confident of that. How is it that no one else is aware of the gap?

I chew on the arm of my glasses, hoping I can come up with an acceptable theory, but I can't. Instead, I put in my newest search. My cover, if asked about this one, will simply be that I put in the name of the person who requested it, instead of the names requested. "Phyllis Anderson,"

Birth certificate. No marriage license. I don't bother looking at anything else. I'm not really worried about my aunt's grades in elementary school. I have what I was hoping for. Her last name at birth would have been Anderson.

Which means my father's last name at birth would have been Anderson...

I look up the last name Anderson.

Vanna was wrong. There is a record of my father.

Baby Boy Anderson died at birth just over forty years ago.

 _ **Can you crack Norton's code? If you leave me a review either you 1- can find out if you are right about the code, or 2- not have to worry about cracking it, because if you leave me a review, I will send you a copy of the code!**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**(5/26/2019)**_

 **Last week when I was supposed to publish I was out of town, and when I got ready to publish Friday, I realized that I had a POV for this chapter. The only problem was... it was only written in my head. So here is the much delayed next chapter! Thank you for your patience!**

 **Chapter Ten**

I grab Vanna's elbow and hiss in her ear, "I found them."

She looks at me, puzzled for a minute; then her eyes widen.

Wordlessly, I walk away from her and head downstairs to the hidden archive. I am pacing in the room when the door opens and Vanna enters. "You found your parents?" she clarifies, but continues without pausing. "How?"

"I got a request today from my aunt, Phyllis. I never knew her last name until today. I just put in her last name and I discovered that Baby Boy Anderson was still-born three years before Phyllis Anderson was born. Then I checked and I found out that Uncle Bud and Aunt Alice took her last name, but their marriage certificate showed his birth name. I typed in just his last name, and… there she was: two years after Bud Dever was born, Baby Girl Dever was still-born."

"That's incredible. We only looked up their names," Vanna mutters as she lowers herself onto the closest chair. "You really are good at research. It never occurred to any of us to try multiple searches that you used to find them."

"That's not all." I take a deep breath. I'm still not ready to share everything, but I think it's time to start laying the ground work in case I decide to tell them. "I had another request recently that had me looking into death certificates. I took it a little further than the request, but in doing that, we discovered that when I was four, there are two months in which no one died."

Vanna blinks rapidly. "No deaths for two months?"

"That's correct. For two months, no one, in any faction, died."

"That's highly improbable." The sentence slips from her lips.

"It was two months… when I was four," I clarify to her, wanting her to understand the significance of it.

"I wonder how many death certificates we lost…"

* * *

"Did you get lost in the stacks?" The female voice surprises me when I finally head back upstairs. Vanna left me alone in the hidden archive about an hour ago. I could have left sooner, but I stayed behind, contemplating what I have discovered, trying to decide if my parents' deaths fit in with the Divergent that Edith Prior warned us about, or if they are separate.

But if it is the people who are damaged, the Divergent, who Edith Prior said are the cause of wars, then there must have been Divergent in our city during my childhood. The attack on the peaceful protesters that my parents were part of, would have been started by the Divergent.

I **have** to become the leader of the Erudite. I am the only person who knows about this danger that we are in from the Divergent. I have to ensure that no one in Erudite, whether they were born here or transfer here, becomes the leader in my place. Supposedly you can't change your IQ, but I know mine went up during initiation. I need to do some research to see if there are any known ways or theories on how to increase your IQ.

Taryn stands in front of me, there licking her lips. I blink, coming out of my revere. "What?"

"Where have you been?" She sounds irritated.

"I've been here. Why?" I wish I could figure out where she is going with this.

"You missed our practice match against Devon's team." Her tone is accusing.

I look at her, shocked. Devon had been taunting Charlotte about a new player he had picked up, and she had challenged him to a practice game. They even got Alistair to agree to ask the questions and judge it. "That's Thursday night."

"Today is Thursday." Her voice is bland.

"No, it's..." I stop, thinking through what I did today, realizing that I categorized the Erudite articles for the newspaper this morning, meaning she's right, it's Thursday. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you still there?"

Taryn shakes her head. Her wavy dark locks swaying with the movement. "We already lost, Norton."

I look at her shocked, "We lost? We've never lost to his team."

Taryn gives me a funny laugh. "We do when you are missing."

"I can't believe…I mean, how did I forget that?" I ask myself as much as her.

"I don't know. How could you forget that? It's not like Charlotte didn't remind you last night at practice, or breakfast this morning, or again when we were at lunch today." Her voice is just shy of accusing.

I pull my glasses off and look at Taryn. "How much trouble am I in?"

"It depends. Why did you miss it?" she asks pointedly.

I can't tell her the truth. I can't tell her about discovering my real parents and the missing death certificates.

"You don't look so good," Taryn tells me suddenly, placing a hand on my forehead, like she's checking me for a fever.

I grab onto the excuse she is giving me. "I'm not feeling well." It's not that far from the truth. Ever since I found my parents still-birth certificates, my head has been spinning. "I was working in the stacks when I suddenly didn't feel well at all. There is a work desk down there that I sat down at and put my head down on…" I trail off not wanting to give too much detail.

"I'll get you to your apartment. Do you have any soup there?" she asks, as she places an arm around my shoulder and gently starts to lead me to the door.

I give a weak laugh. "There are two guys in the apartment. The closest thing we have to food is popcorn and lemon lime drink."

"The drink should be good for your stomach, and I have some soup in my apartment. I'll get it for you, after we get you home."

"I can make it home," I try to assure her.

Taryn gives me a sideways glance. "If you're too sick to remember Charlotte's grudge match, I don't think you should be trying to get yourself home."

Suddenly, I realize that Taryn is intentionally giving me an out. She gave me the idea of being sick, and she's taking me home to try to keep me out of being in too much trouble with Charlotte. Charlotte! "Did Charlotte send you here? I bet she's pretty mad."

"No and yes," Taryn's voice is suddenly flat. "No, Charlotte didn't send me, and yes she's furious with you, and currently crying in her fizzy drink to Ian about how you let us down. I don't like losing either, but instead of crying, I'm came to check on you."

Charlotte is with Ian. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm sure she's mad at me, and I'm supposed to be sick, I think I would go find them. "You really came and got me all on your own?"

Taryn's dimples show. "What can I say, I like…" her pause is barely noticeable, "winning."

* * *

I stand hesitantly with my tray. Do I have breakfast with my colleagues from work like I do many mornings, or do I sit with Charlotte and the rest of her group? I take a deep breath and decide that after my conversation with Taryn last night, I better get facing Charlotte over with. So, although it looks like most of them are almost finished eating, I walk over to their table and ask while I am standing next to them, "Is it safe for me to join you?"

Every eye turns to Charlotte, telling me with their looks that I am in trouble. She, on the other hand, looks at me with a feigned indifference in her deep brown eyes. "You do whenever is convenient for you."

I am definitely in trouble.

Sitting across from Charlotte, puts me between Taryn and Alistair. I take a deep breath and start my apologies. "I'm sorry…"

Charlotte cuts me off. "Look, I understand that people get sick, but you couldn't send someone to let us know? We were worried about you."

Silently I thank Taryn for covering for me.

"I was in the stacks when it hit me. There was no one else down there. I had just made my way upstairs when Taryn found me."

"You work too hard," Charlotte chastises me. "I understand that your work is important to you, but it has been proven that too much work can make a person sick. You need to take breaks, spend time with your friends. You will do better work and be more productive if you do. There was a study done recently on the amount to time spent on work versus the amount of time spent with family and friends. I got a chance to work on the data on it and…"

I can't keep from smiling, but I'm surprised when Marion laughs outright at her.

"What's so funny?" Charlotte is genuinely puzzled.

Ian puts a gentle hand on her arm, causing me to fight the desire to move it so he isn't touching her. I understand he believes that they are practically engaged, but that doesn't mean I want to see him flaunt it. "You do realize that you just chided him for working so much and offered to prove it with the data that you work with."

Charlotte's spoonful of oatmeal hangs in the air, half way to her mouth. Her mouth gapes open in a very un-ladylike manner.

Taryn's lips are pressed together to keep from laughing.

"I analyzed that data during working hours, not during trivia!" Outraged at the observation, Charlotte's spoon clinks against the side of her bowl, as she puts it down without taking a bite.

I put half my hard-boiled egg in my mouth to keep from saying anything. I'm already in enough trouble. I'm not going to take a chance at contradicting her.

With the rights of an oldest and best friend, Marion speaks. "You don't work as many hours as Norton does, but you don't have as much to prove."

Everyone, including me, looks at her, curious as to what she means. When she doesn't automatically answer our unspoken question, I figure it is up to me to ask. "What do I have to prove?"

Marion looks at everyone at the table, like she is judging if she should answer it or not. She looks at Charlotte first. "Those of us who were born in Erudite grew up with certain expectations being placed on us."

Charlotte laughs. "I can't argue with that statement."

"Norton didn't have those expectations growing up, so he's not used to the pressure and feels like he has to work extra hard to prove that he is as smart as he is." Marion looks at me while she says it. "I'm not sure he realized that he felt that way until I just pointed it out."

I look at her for a moment, dumbfounded. I don't answer. I can't say anything, as it dawns on me that she's probably right. Maybe if I didn't hang out with Erudite born, maybe if Graham hadn't told me there was a chance that I am smarter than Donovan and might one day lead this faction, maybe if I wasn't so focused on learning about my history, our history and its missing gaps, I wouldn't feel this way. Maybe it is all of these reasons; maybe it is none of them.

Charlotte looks at Marion. "No offense, Marion. I know you are a training to be a midwife and have more medical training than the most of us do, but I don't think you are qualified to be a psychiatrist." She turns to Taryn. "What do you think, Ryn? Does being a transfer make you work harder?"

Taryn gives her a little glare. "I'm not a psychiatrist, either."

Charlotte tips her head and looks at Taryn over her glasses, a lock of her dark hair falling over her shoulders.

Taryn lets out a huff of air. "I don't think you can compare Norton and me. I'm going to be an upper level math teacher, statistics and calculus. Norton is a gifted researcher. He is the youngest Archivist in memory, one that I've heard may head the library research department or maybe even the library one day. It's not the same level of pressure."

"Who said that?" I'm slightly stunned by what Taryn has just revealed. Since Graham mentioned it to me, I've thought about replacing Donovan, but I had never thought about anything else that might mean.

Charlotte, along with half the group, looks at me, surprised. "You didn't realize that?"

I try not to squirm in my seat from their intense looks. "I never thought about it." I turn back to my breakfast in an attempt to take the attention off of me. After I finish my egg and start picking around the blueberries in my yogurt, I look up and find Charlotte alone is still looking at me.

"You're on probation." She winks at me over the top of her glasses. "Now eat your blueberries. Between the stress you put yourself under and the fact you won't eat the blueberries that are supposed to be good for your heart, you're going to die of a heart attack!"

I laugh at her and make a face as I purposefully eat one blueberry. Since they were already eating when I sat down, most of the group has left before I'm finished eating. I stand up to dump my tray, and Taryn stands up with me. We walk together, putting up the dirty dishes from our breakfasts. I empty my blueberries, as always, in the composing to go to Amity.

Taryn stays in step with me as I leave the cafeteria. It's only when we are outside of it that she ventures to speak. "Marion is right. You know that, don't you?"

"Right about what?" I check.

"You do put a lot of pressure on yourself. The Erudite born aren't the most welcoming. I assumed you were from here. You evidently work extra hard to prove that you are smart enough to be here."

"I always assumed you were from here, too, with the way that Charlotte brought you in. Where did you transfer from?"

Taryn stops walking and looks at me as she licks her lips.

She's nervous to tell me. Once again, my upbringing comes to the front. Maybe if I tell her where I grew up, she will be more comfortable telling me where she was born. "I was raised Amity."

"Dauntless."

* * *

Dauntless. Over the next couple of days, Taryn's birth faction swims continually in my head.

It is suddenly obvious to me. I need them. I need Dauntless. The next time the Divergent attack us, we will need the Dauntless to protect us. They are the only ones who have the training to defeat the Divergent.

How do I do it? How do I ensure the Dauntless on my side?

What steps am I going to need to take in order make sure that when the time comes to take on the Divergent and fight them, that I have Dauntless are primed?

To ensure that I have Dauntless, I am going to have to find a way of influencing Dauntless.

I catch myself watching Taryn. She is the closest person to me knowing anyone from Dauntless. Part of me feels like this makes her the key to unlocking Dauntless. Maybe in observing her, I can get a better idea of how the faction functions.

But she seems to be Dauntless the same way that I am Amity. We were raised in those factions, but each of us, at our core, belongs in Erudite. She doesn't take risks, or do thing that are overtly brave. She just seems to go through her day being smart and making intelligent decisions.

I'm not sure that watching her is going to help me figure out how to sway her former faction when the time comes.

Until I start watching her, I never realized how much Taryn watches me. I try not to be obvious in the fact that I am trying to learn more about her and how she thinks, but it is hard when it seems like she is always watching me. Maybe this is a new thing, and she's hoping to figure out more about Amity by watching me.

* * *

"I can't believe we pulled that one off!" Patrick's voice is excited. It's nearly eleven o'clock, and we just won the Friday night trivia contest against last year's Trivia champions.

Taryn laughs and looks at me admiringly. "I know. Norton was amazing!"

"I know how to build a team." Charlotte smugly takes credit, then slips her arm around my shoulders. "I knew Norton was the key to the team."

I came from Amity, so an arm slung over my shoulder barely registers with me.

But as soon as she does this, Taryn's hazel eyes exchange their bright excitement for softer glow filled with unshed tears.

Ian's eyes become small hard slits.

It's then that I recollect that I'm in Erudite, and touches, even between friends, aren't common.

"I have an early day tomorrow." Ian starts to veer away from us.

Charlotte looks puzzled. "What about the debrief?"

Taryn answers for both of them as she follows Ian down a different trail. "What is there to debrief? We all did well in our assigned disciplines and Norton was stellar. It's been a long day, and I'm tired. I'll see you later."

Charlotte and I stand still, her arm dropping off me while we watch them go. "What just happened?"

Watching the two of them take off, I answer, "I'm not sure."

Laughing, Patrick shakes his head at us, "Really? The two of you are among the smartest people in the faction. You need me to spell it out?"

"Evidently I do, since I'm asking." Charlotte sounds irritated.

Patrick looks at both of us appraisingly. He speaks slowly. "No, if the two of you can't figure it out, I don't think I should tell you."

* * *

"Norton," Charlotte calls out my name as her partner.

Taryn, who is still waiting her turn to draw a name, looks disappointed.

I move over to stand by Charlotte while Taryn and the last few ladies pick their partners. I find myself excited by the idea of getting to spend an hour basically alone with Charlotte as we follow the clues through the city. When we get our clue, Charlotte and I look over it carefully.

"Well?" Charlotte asks, looking at me.

"Near the marsh I am a circle on a circle." I read the clue out loud in a low voice, hoping it will give me a better idea. "Let's head towards the marsh while I think."

We start off in that direction while I try to figure out what circles they are talking about. "What are you working on these days?" Charlotte asks sounding genuinely interested in what I am researching.

"I'm doing some research on the old Doane Observatory..." my voice trails off as I abruptly stop walking.

"Norton?" Charlotte stops and turns to me.

"The Observatory is next to the Planetarium, which is a round building on a round berm of land."

Grabbing my hand, Charlotte smiles broadly, "Let's go!"

We take off at a run to the Planetarium. Sure enough, when we get there, we find an envelope with our next clue. I grab Charlotte by the waist and swing her around when I see it. When I put her down neither of us moves. We just look at each other. Then in unison, we each move a step forward. We are so close that if I lean in, I could kiss her.

She is beautiful. I want to whisper into her ear that it's not completely logical, but I love her, I want to tell her she's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, that she has an amazing intellect, and a sparkling personality.

I start to lean in to kiss her, when there is a sudden pounding of feet on the ground. Unconsciously, we move away from each other as a black-clad mob joins us. They ignore us and head to the sundial. One of them walks up to the sundial that sits on its large pedestal. He climbs up on the dial itself and holds on to the thin metal that connects the bottom tip to the top. He lifts himself up it and climbs up it, hand over hand. When he gets to the top, he yells at the top of his lungs, "I dare Lou to jump into the marsh and catch a frog." Then he moves down on the sundial and jumps off, pulling a silver flask out of his pocket and throwing it to a girl with blonde hair with hot pink tips.

The girl opens up the flask and takes a drink as the group now sprints the short distance to the marsh.

The moment is broken as I stare at the group of Dauntless. Suddenly, I realize that there is only one way for me to have the connection I will one day need with Dauntless, and that's Taryn.

Do I kiss Charlotte, the woman I love, knowing that once I do that, I give up any chance I have of a connection with Dauntless? Or do I give up Charlotte and resign myself to Taryn, knowing that she will give me the Dauntless connection that I will need when I am the faction leader, and it is time to destroy the Divergent?

 **This is the last chapter of Part 1! (Yeah!)**

 **If you leave me a review, I'll send you the POVS for this chapter. Yes, POVS plural. There are three to cover some of what happens between the end of Part 1 and the beginning of Part 2. They all have to do with couples and all of the couples are ancestors cannon characters!**


	11. Chapter 11

_**(6-7-2019)**_

 _ **Thank you to everyone who left a review. I really appreciate them. They help keep me going, and... on this story stay motivated. It is not nearly as fun to be in Norton's head as Hana's so it is easy for me to get... sidetracked some days.**_

 _ **That and there is just A LOT going on in real life right now!**_

 _ **Thank you also to Bahrfamily for continuing to Beta on this story. I appreicate her help as always!**_

 **Part** **2 The** **Leader**

 **Chapter 11**

"I want to be the teacher this time." Lisette's voice has a slight whine to it.

Soundlessly, I close the apartment door behind me, wishing I could just turn around and leave. It has been a long day, and I was hoping to come home to peace and quiet, not to a storm of childish woes.

"You're too young to be the teacher," Anderson informs his younger sister. "You don't have anything to teach me. I should be the teacher."

"If that is your reasoning," Raymond, our oldest, speaks up from the kitchen table, "I should be the teacher so you can all learn something."

The younger children ignore Raymond. At fifteen, he doesn't play much with his younger siblings.

"Who do you think should be the teacher?" Lisette asks in her most beguiling voice.

My heart still leaps at the sound of Charlotte's voice. "Why don't you let Beverly be the teacher, since she is your guest?"

"We can do that," Anderson agrees.

"But Beverly is in the same grade as me! If she's old enough to be the teacher, why can't I be?"

"Lisette!" Her mother's voice is stern.

There is no more time for me to listen. I open the door back up, and close it loudly enough to make myself known, so my sweet Lisette doesn't get a lecture from her mother. "Hello!" I call from my spot near the door, to give everyone a chance to adjust to me being here.

"Father!" I hear Lisette's fast footsteps before I see her running towards me.

Leaning down, I pick up my daughter and carry her into the other room. When we enter the room, Beverly sits with Anderson on the floor around a pile of books, small desks, and a whiteboard that they have in a corner to both play school and study as needed.

"Who do you think should be the teacher this time?" Lisette's green eyes plead to me to give her again what she wants.

I put her down with the other kids, knowing that at nine, she's really too old for me to be holding. "Beverly is our guest. Let her be the teacher, or if she doesn't want to, let her choose."

Moving to the couch where Charlotte and Taryn sit talking and watching the kids, I long to take Charlotte into my arms and hug her, but I force myself to do what I have done since I made my decision. I turn my inclination towards Taryn instead of Charlotte and hug my wife, kissing her on each of her dimples, a habit I developed when we were dating and I had problems with the idea of kissing her mouth. "What are you and Beverly doing here?" I ask Charlotte as I step away from Taryn.

Charlotte's beautiful laugh rings out. "Beverly and Lisette had homework that they wanted to work on together. I was just going to drop her off, but I'm still here."

"Is the homework done?"

Beverly and Lisette share a guilty glance. "We're taking a break," Beverly answers for them.

"Anderson, is your homework done?"

"Mother is going to look over my math homework after Charlotte leaves, but other than that I am finished," he answers proudly.

"Then how about this? Anderson, you will be the teacher, and the girls will work on their homework with your help."

* * *

Taryn hands me the note from Raymond's science teacher after Charlotte leaves. I unfold it and read it carefully. I look up at Taryn. "Again?"

Sighing heavily, Taryn responds, "Again. I've heard whispers around the faculty that he's done this in other classes, too."

Feigning disappointment, I respond, "I'll take him for a walk tonight after dinner and talk to him away from the younger children."

"It's my fault." Taryn's voice trembles.

Her words surprise me. Raymond is acting the way I hoped one of the children would, but she doesn't know that. I stop for a moment, unsure of what to do or say. If it was Charlotte?

If it was Charlotte, I would take her in my arms and reassure her that I don't blame her for Raymond's behavior. So, I wrap my arms around her. "It's not your fault."

Taryn pulls a bit away from me, and keeping her voice low she responds. "It is. I'm the one who came from Dauntless."

"And how many fights did you get into in school?"

"None."

"And if he had been caught passing notes making fun of the teachers," I name a common misbehavior for a child from Amity, "would you blame **me**?"

"No!" Taryn looks surprised that I would even think that.

"So why would you think that you blame you?" I lean in and kiss one of her dimples. "Let me get changed from work, and after dinner, I'll take him for that walk."

While I change, I mull over what to say to Raymond. I had hoped by the time this day came, I would already be the leader of Erudite. Telling my child to leave Erudite and go to Dauntless in preparation for the day that I need him would be so much easier if I were already the leader.

But Raymond's record at school has made it obvious to me that he is the right child to send to Dauntless. He will probably go even if I don't send him. I just need to figure out the best argument to ensure that he goes to help me when I need him, and not just because he did get a Dauntless temperament from Taryn's side of the family.

Just like I wanted one of them to.

My original plan had been to been to have four children. I would send one child to Dauntless to get the protectors on our side, one to Amity to find out what secrets they possess, one to Abnegation to be part of leadership, and to keep one in Erudite. Because of the use of the Candor's truth serum, I can't send anyone there.

But because of Taryn's health issues, her gestational diabetes getting worse with each pregnancy and not going away after Lisette, it was not logical to have another child and further risk her health. I will have to forgo Abnegation for this generation.

* * *

"You know why we're on this walk, right?" I ask Raymond after dinner.

There is a moment of silence before he answers. "No. I have A's in all my classes."

Yes, I think, A's in all of your on-level classes. Raymond never made it into any honors classes, not even math when Taryn tried to tutor him so he could. I've been watching him ever since Anderson made his first honors class in lower levels, to see if I should send him to Dauntless or Amity. I've thought many times since that day he was probably the one for Dauntless. Today's note just confirmed it. "Did anything interesting happen in school today?"

"We turned into a paper in English today, and we started studying Dauntless in Faction History."

The information on studying Dauntless will come in handy later in this conversation, but I have no interest in listening to a class-by-class rundown. "What about science?"

"We just took notes, but tomorrow we're supposed to start dissection." His voice shows some excitement.

This has gone on long enough. "Was there some… inappropriate behavior in the classroom today?"

Raymond stops walking and looks at me, surprised that I know about it. "I was just horsing around with some friends."

"Did Anthony," I name Alistair and Marion's son, "have a note sent home, too?" As soon as I ask, I remember that Anthony is in honors science. He wouldn't even be there, but I decide not to mention that and see what he says.

"No." He hurries to catch up to me. Not bothering to remind me about Anthony's placement.

I think through the children I know in his grade systematically, trying to think of even one friend who isn't in honors science.

I can't come up with any.

"Who were you horsing around with?" I deliberately chose his word, instead of the teacher's word from the note, of wrestling or "rough-housing" like she used in the first note.

"No one you know," Raymond answers quickly.

"You might be surprised who I know from helping them with research." I stretch the truth. These days, most of the research I do is generally high level for someone like Graham, who is the head of research and development, not for an upper level student.

Raymond opens his mouth, then shuts it. I don't respond. He tries two more times before he manges to answer my question. "You don't know them, because they are from Dauntless. I'm the only Erudite in my class."

Looking away to the school the excitement from my features, I think joyfully that he'll be happy to go where I plan to send him. I just have to make sure that when he leaves, he takes loyalty to me, and to Erudite, with him.

"Raymond, if Erudite wasn't an option for you, would you want to go to Dauntless?"

Raymond stops again, but like before, I continue walking. He catches up with me and asks in a rush, "Why wouldn't Erudite be an option?"

"Just humor me." I want an answer before I lay out my cards.

"If Erudite wasn't an option, then yes, I'd probably go to Dauntless." He answers reluctantly, like he's never given the idea of going anywhere but Erudite a thought.

We finally make it to the location towards which I have had us wondering. The reflective statue of the bean. If we stand at just the right part, I can keep a better eye out for anyone who might be walking by.

"Raymond, this conversation is just between us. You can never tell anyone about it. Not your mother, not Anderson, not Lisette, not Anthony, not any of your other Erudite friends, and certainly not your Dauntless friends. Is that possible?"

Raymond looks at me, confused. "I won't tell anyone."

Checking the reflection to make sure no one is around; I start my explanation. "When Donovan retires or dies, I will most likely become the leader of Erudite, and I need you to go to Dauntless…"

 _ **There is no "bribe" this time, but if you get a chance to leave a review I would appreciate it!**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**(6/21/2019) Thank you for your continued interest in this story. It makes my day to receive your reviews. There are major adjustments going on in my household right now, and hearing from you helps me make sure I keep on writing! It always helps to know someone is out there and interested!**_

 **Chapter 12**

Looking around to make sure there is no one in sight, I pause before I enter the stone building. It has an older feel than most of the buildings in the city. The center of the building, where there are arched doors, has an isosceles roof line. Two wings go out to either side of it. The façade is pox marked with damage that destroyed the writing that was once on it. I have chosen this building to meet Raymond at for several reasons.

Although the building is grandiose, it is deserted; no Factionless live here. It is extensive enough that if someone did follow one of us, they would get lost in the many rooms.

It is spacious enough that as I add more spies to my network, they will be able to meet here, also. Each child I place in a different faction will have their own area to meet me in. I could meet many people here, one after the other, and each would never know anyone else is here.

Then there are the three letters that have survived the destruction to the front. "CHI" They remind me of one of the words I have never decoded. No matter how hard I have tried. Chicago remains elusive in definition to me.

Deep inside of me is the reason I don't like to admit, even to myself. It reminds me of childhood. Artwork, for art's sake, only exists in Amity. Within these walls is a piece of Amity hidden in the city, away from the open fields. It has art left inside the many rooms. Raymond picked out a piece of art to meet me at. I wander through the wide hallways towards the room with his chosen piece in it. Among other things, this room contains busts of women with long coiled hair, stones with animals carved into them, and jars with scenes on them.

"Mother doesn't seem to be too happy with you!" Raymond tells me from his place by the jar he chose. It is a black jar with a warlike scene on the tan background between the two handles.

"I'm well aware of that," I respond dryly. "On Visiting Day, she only spoke to me through Anderson or Lisette."

"Mother gave you the silent treatment?" Raymond sounds surprised.

"She feels that I am being unjust towards you, and that if my family was willing to come see me, I should be willing to come see you."

There is shocked silence before Raymond responds to that. "You came from Dauntless?"

Now it is my turn to be surprised. "Mother didn't tell you?"

"No."

"I thought she might have told you when she was there. No, I didn't come from Dauntless." I pause a beat. "Your mother did."

"Mother?"

"Hard to believe, isn't it?"

"Very."

There is a moment of silence between us, while I let my son absorb that fact. Suddenly he laughs, "No wonder the cake tastes familiar!"

Momentarily confused by his comment, I start to ask him what he means, but then I remember Taryn's confession that her cake recipe came from her Dauntless grandmother. "Yes, your great-grandmother was a cook in Dauntless and taught your mother how to make their cake."

Looking at Raymond, I decide to tell him the rest of his history. "Would you like me to tell you something that is probably even harder to believe than your mother coming from Dauntless?"

"What is that?" Raymond sounds doubtful.

"I was raised in Amity."

He stands in shocked silence.

"It is an unknown fact that I was actually born in Erudite, but when my parents died, I was sent to live with my mother's brother in Amity."

Raymond looks skeptical. "Faction before blood. Even if there is no other family, children are kept in their faction and raised by friends, not sent to their family outside of it."

Motioning Raymond to a bench in the room, I prepare to tell him a little more about my story. "Normally, you are right, and I didn't know this growing up. I discovered information about my parents working in the Archive. I've never told anyone else this."

"Not even Mother?" Raymond checks.

"Not even your mother."

"So, why are you telling me?"

"Because my history is part of why I sent you to Dauntless."

"The Divergent were involved in your history?" Raymond sounds puzzled.

"There was a riot in the city when I was young. I believe it was started by people who were damaged, Divergent. My parents died in it. Aunt Alice, who I grew up calling 'Mama', found me. So, I guess she got to keep me."

"I don't remember this from Faction history," Raymond tells me dubiously.

"You wouldn't. Someone took great care to make sure nothing about it was recorded and no one remembered it, but I have found proof."

"How did they do that?"

He's asking for proof. There is some Erudite in the boy, after all.

"Each faction has their own serum. One of them makes you forget."

"It's not Dauntless," Raymond announces confidently.

"How do you know that?"

"Dauntless serum is similar to the Aptitude Test. It causes hallucinations, only they are designed to bring up things that make you afraid." He looks away, and I wonder what brings out fear in my Dauntless son.

Similar to the Aptitude Test repeats itself in my mind. "Did you know it wasn't real?"

"Oh, it felt very real." Raymond shudders.

"Did anyone in your class know it wasn't real?"

Raymond shrugs. "I don't know. I didn't ask."

"Try to find out without being obvious."

"Why?"

"Being aware during a simulation is one of the signs of being Divergent. I sent you to Dauntless to figure out how I can get the faction to fight to protect the city from the danger of the Divergent. People who are Divergent are aware during a simulation. If there are Divergent in Dauntless, it would be good to know who they are.

* * *

"I thought that you had to give up your key to my office when your mother retired," I tell Graham dryly when I open the door to my office as the head of library research and find him sitting at one of the chairs in front of my desk. He's made random visits to see me at work ever since Charlotte and Ian started officially dating. At first, I thought he was trying to avoid Ian, because back then he always seemed to find a way to let me know that if I ever changed my mind, he would be happy to see me with Charlotte instead of with Taryn.

Although I took a perverse pleasure in knowing that her father would prefer me over Ian, my course was set. It couldn't change because my desire. My mission to either be prepared for an attack from the Divergent or to rid the city of the Divergent was then, and is now, more important than what I want.

Graham laughs. "I grew up in this library. There are very few people here older than you who won't let me in."

I sit down on the other chair. "So, what brings you here?"

"We had a meeting with Donovan yesterday."

"We?" I check, wondering who he is talking about.

"Donovan and all present and past initiation mentors." He sits back in his chair, letting that sink in.

"Charlotte didn't mention this," I think out loud. Charlotte become a mentor five years ago when Graham stepped down from the position.

"Why would Charlotte mention it to you? She wouldn't understand the implication of the discussion as it relates to you." Graham rubs his palms together.

I'm sure I look puzzled when I ask, "What implication?"

"Donovan is starting to think about the future and what will happen when he is no longer the leader. In the meeting, he talked over the people who he thinks might be his successor." Graham looks at me pointedly. "You were not mentioned in this meeting."

Pulling off my glasses, I mutter, "I would have guessed that without you telling me."

Graham gives me a meaningful smile. "But he asked me stay after the meeting, and that is when he brought you up."

"He did?" I fail to keep the surprise out of my voice.

"Donovan admitted to me that he was aware of your true IQ when you were an initiate. He asked me to tell him everything I remember about you as an initiate. Then he wanted to know what I know about you since that time." Graham leans forward in his chair. "I don't know what is getting ready to happen, Norton, but Donovan is starting to put his house in order. If I didn't know better, I would think that he's getting ready to admit you are his heir."

Chewing thoughtfully on my glasses, I feel a bitter smile cross my lips. "It's about time."

* * *

"I'm ready." Lisette stands in front of Taryn and me in her nightgown.

Even though she already knows the answer, Taryn asks her, "Who do you want to read to tonight?"

"Father." She answers just like she does every night I am available.

Taryn opens her arms. "Come tell me goodnight."

Lisette hurries over to her mother and hugs her before skipping over and taking my hand to lead me to her room. "What are you reading tonight?" I ask as she climbs up onto her bed.

"Will you read it to me, Fa?" Lisette uses her nickname for me while holding up a thin book with a title I don't recognize.

I sit down on the bed next to her. "Aren't you supposed to practice reading to me?"

"I read at school. Can't you read to me tonight?" She snuggles in. "Please?"

It's tempting to give my little girl what she wants, to but I had to work late last night, at a Hidden Archivist meeting, and Taryn mentioned when we went to bed that she doesn't think Lisette is reading as well as Raymond or Anderson did at her age. Putting my arm around her, I respond, "You need the practice, but," I hurry before she can pout, "I'll trade pages with you. You read the first, I'll read the second, and we can continue that way through the entire book. "

"Can't you read first?"

I open up the book to the first page, steeling myself against more pleading. "Your page."

"I'll read the first two pages," Lisette quickly bargains, "and then we can alternate pages."

I glance over the pages, trying to decide if the even pages are shorter than the odd, but they don't seem to be, so I agree with her request.

The first page is a struggle, and I wonder if I should have quit reading to her earlier to help her fluency, but as soon as she starts the second page her reading smooths out and I forget about my concern.

* * *

Graham grabs my arm and drags me into one of the empty study rooms. He flips the electromagnetic switch causing the glass instantly turns opaque. "I had no idea what he was planning."

"You had no idea what who was planning?" I ask confused.

Graham starts pacing the short distance from wall to wall.

"Graham, you had no idea what who was planning?"

"Donovan."

Worried that he found a way to by-pass me, I sit down in one of the chairs. "What is Donovan planning?"

"Was planning. **WAS** ," Graham bitterly repeats the past tense.

"What did he do?" Fighting my anger, I curl my fingers into a fist underneath the table. If he found a way to bypass me for leadership, and my sacrifice of Charlotte and sending Raymond to Dauntless will be for nothing.

Graham stops pacing in front of me. "Donovan told us he needed some of the Erudite serum. He was the leader; we didn't question him. We didn't even ask him what he wanted it for. If I had known, if I had any idea about what he had found out from the doctor, I never would have let him have it."

I feel my forehead wrinkle. "What does the Erudite serum do?" It's one of the few serums Graham has never had me do research on.

"It's the euthanasia serum. We use it for terminally ill patients."

"We use it to kill people?" I hope I don't sound as surprised as I feel.

"Yes, only after the dying patient has requested it, and even then, it is highly regulated. A team of doctors has come to complete agreement that the person is terminal and the patient must to see an Amity counselor to make sure they are mentally able to make the decision."

"Why did he want it?"

"He had a doctor's appointment and found out he has Alzheimer's. He was losing his memory. He took the Erudite serum and killed himself rather than face it." Graham looks stricken.

My mind starts racing with the implication. As far as I know, Donovan never acknowledged me, or anyone else, as his heir. "What happens now?"

"Tonight, Donovan's death, although not the cause of it, will be announced. Tomorrow they will start setting up to retest the IQ of everyone over the age of sixteen. In about a week, they will start retesting everyone's IQ."

"And then?"

Graham takes a deep breath. "And then, unless I miss my guess, you will become the leader of the Erudite."


	13. Chapter 13

_**(7/6/2019)**_

 **Characters-**

 **Vanna- school librarian, Norton's mentor as a Hidden Archivist.**

 **Charlotte- Friend from initiation, Norton seemed to have a crush on her at one point in time.**

 **Donovan- (mentioned) the leader Erudite before Norton.**

 **Ian- (mentioned) Charlotte's husband, went through initiation with Norton and Charlotte.**

 **Chapter 13**

Running my hands over the smooth surface of Donovan's-no, **my-** desk, I smile to myself. It took me an hour to clean it out and set it up for myself, changing ownership as thoroughly as I can.

If only the faction would be as easy to set up in my image as the desk is. It doesn't help that I am an unknown quantity. Because of Donovan's paranoia, I have been hidden in the stacks of the library and the average member of Erudite as never even heard my name before. As a math teacher in the upper level school, Taryn is actually better known than I am. She is a tough teacher, and I'm unsure if she is an asset or a liability. As many Erudite students hate her as love her.

There is a brisk knock on my door warning me that Glynis, my secretary, will be walking in. Hopefully she will have the assignment I gave her before I started arranging my desk.

"Norton," she starts as soon as she walks into the room, "I have the list of the data analysts that you requested."

She hands me a folder. "Thank you."

"What do you need next?" Her blue eyes shift around the room, noting the changes that I have already made.

"Have a seat." I gesture to the chairs in front of my desk.

She looks nervous as she sits down. There is something about the wariness with which she sits down with that makes me wonder what happened when Donovan used to give that command. I sit down on the other seat, instead of behind the desk; I hope that will relax her a little. "Is everything alright?" she asks hesitantly after I sit down.

"Yes, Glynis, but I find myself at a bit of a disadvantage on this job," I admit.

"What do you mean?" Glynis asks confused.

"Before today, I have only been in this office once, and that was to meet Donovan after my final IQ tests to talk about my job with him. I have spent years working the in library. You are the only person I can think of to ask a very important question." Mama always said that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I hope she's right.

Glynis sits up straighter. "What is your question?"

"What do I do?" It goes against my grain to show weakness. Although I want to be in charge, to be powerful, to lead this faction to safety, I'm not sure what Donovan did on a daily bases. Following Mama's advice better work. There will be changes that I need to make… changes that will be easier with Glynis on my side.

Glynis smiles at me. "How about if I send a copy of Donovan's schedule for his last month to you, as well as what was already planned for the next three months. You can look over it and then when you are ready, we can go over it and see what questions you have, and what you may want to change."

"That sounds like an excellent idea. I would appreciate it." Change, the magic word. She also sees that things will need to be different.

As soon as I finish speaking, she stands, but then quickly sits back down. "Is there anything else?"

"That will be all for now," I tell her.

She pops back up. "I should have it in your inbox in about 10 minutes."

"Thank you." I don't watch her leave, but pick up the file she gave me and start to look over it. The first name on the list of data analysts makes me smile. Charlotte. I had forgotten that was her job title. It's perfect. There is no one else I would rather work with.

* * *

"I never thought I would see you here, Norton. I'm sorry, but I never had a clue, even with your superior research skills, that one day you would end up here." A familiar voice speaks to me from the doorway.

I look up from Donovan's schedule for this week to see Vanna standing in the doorway. "Vanna! Good to see you! Come in!" I stand up and walk to meet her. I meet her at the chairs that sit in front of my desk, offering her one before I take the other myself. We sit down facing each other.

Vanna looks around almost nervously. I know the moment she sees the new bookshelf, already half-filled with books that I had brought in shortly after I took over. "It looks like you are making the room your own."

"Yes, I felt it was important to make changes from the very beginning. I'm not going to be another Donovan," I answer bitterly. Studying Vanna for a moment, and thinking about how she has guided me through the years, I decide to trust her with the truth. "He falsified my IQ results. I am completely unprepared for this job because of that."

Vanna takes a deep breath, "I can see why you would feel that way, but if I would have- if we would have- known how close you were to sitting in this office, your life would have been very different."

Sitting back in my chair, I realize for the first time that I might not have worked in the library if Donovan had acknowledged me as his probable heir. But I plan on keeping those people in my inner group in their jobs, so that way they are in touch with what is going on in the faction. "I'd like to think I would have still chosen to work at the library. I learned a lot there. Especially my work in the **archive.** " I can't keep from stressing the word. hoping she understands I mean the secret one.

She starts to speak, then stops, starts again, and then stops just as quickly. She stands and walks over to the bookshelf and looks at the spines of the books. She notices a three-ring binder with the word, "Births" written on the spine. She pulls it out and looks through the pages. "You are keeping your own written record of who has been born."

"Yes." I stand and walk over to her. I pull the next two binders from the bookshelf and show her those, too. "'Choosing ceremony' and 'Deaths'. No one is going to disappear like my parents again."

She hands me back the binder. "You shouldn't know about them."

"I should!" Even I am surprised at the bitterness in my voice.

"No, you shouldn't." Vanna shakes her head sadly. "The leader of Erudite doesn't know about the hidden archive. You know things that you shouldn't."

"Are you saying I shouldn't know that I was actually born in Erudite? That I shouldn't know my parents have disappeared from history?" I can't believe that Vanna is implying this.

She takes a deep breath and speaks slowly. "If we had known that you would one day occupy this office, we never would have brought you in as a hidden archivist."

My mouth gaps open at her. I quickly close it. "What do you mean?"

"I have been told to inform you, that your access to the hidden archive has been terminated," her voice firm.

"What?"

"It was never intended for anyone who occupies this office to have access to the archive, or even to know that it even exists. We ask that you forget that it is there and that you allow us to continue to record our history secretly, behind the scenes."

I hold tight to the records that I now keep, written records, designed like those of the hidden archive to make sure that I know if someone tampers with our history. "But I do know, and I can't unknow what I know."

Vanna exhales wearily, "I realize that. We just ask that you would continue to keep our existence a secret."

Clasping the binder tightly in one arm, I pull off my glasses and chew on the arm while I think. It's not just about my parents, and the confidence I gained knowing that this is really where I belong, this is also about what I know about Edith Prior and the Divergent threat that we must prepare for. I take a deep breath and put my glasses back on. "I have no intention of letting anyone know about the second archive, but Vanna, **I** know about it. **I** know that it exists, and I think that the Archivists, both the known and the hidden, can be some of my best assets."

Vanna tips her head and looks at me, curiosity filling her blue eyes, "What do you mean by that?"

"There will be times that Archivists, the people who are most familiar with the documents of our history, will be able to help guide me to the right decisions. I can understand the fact that you don't want me accessing the hidden archive, and although I don't like it, I will respect that." She has no idea what it costs me to agree to give up access to Edith Prior's journal. "All I'm asking is that if there is anything in it, anything that I need to know in order to run this faction, to make the best decisions for it, that you, or another archivist, let me know."

She thinks for a minute. "I think might be arranged. I will talk to everyone else about it, but it will end with you."

"No, I think **all** Erudite leaders should have this advantage. If you don't want the other leaders to know about the Hidden Archive, that is understandable, but what I propose," I wasn't expecting this, but I'm thinking quickly and speaking firmly, "is that future leaders of Erudite are told that if anyone ever comes to them and says that they have a message from 'Elizabeth', that they should listen carefully to what they have to say. If the Hidden Archivists at that time chose to tell the leader of Erudite about the Hidden Archive, it will be up to them."

Vanna smiles at my choice of my mother's name. "Your suggestion has merit. I will discuss it with the rest of the hidden archivists."

* * *

"To what do I owe this honor?" Charlotte teases as she walks into my office for the first time, shortly after Vanna leaves.

I pause for a second before I answer her. "I need your help reorganizing the faction."

Charlotte laughs brightly. "Well, if that is all you need, we should be finished by noon! Now, really, why am I here?" She stops to actually look at me. "You're serious." She lowers herself onto the edge of the small worktable in my office.

"Yes, I'm very serious. Donovan was stupid. Your father told me shortly after initiation that one day I would probably sit in this seat. According to Graham, shortly before he died, Donovan admitted to your father that he knew that too, but he was afraid that I would try to take over before he died, so he buried me in the last place anyone would look for me. Now, I have to figure out what I need to do without the help of ever having seen anything about how this faction functions. It is idiotic, inefficient, and illogical to keep the successor in the dark like that." I hear the frustration in my voice.

Charlotte pushes her glasses back up on her nose. "Agreed. So, what are we going to do about it?"

I love the fact that in this moment, she and I become what I always wished we could have been. We. "I need someone who can analyze things to help me figure out how to reorganize things. At my request, Glynis made a list of all the data analysts in order of job performance. You are the top of the list. Here's the data of everyone who is currently under the age of fifty, with their initial IQ test."

* * *

"I don't see why my father thought you would lead the faction. You were pretty far down on the list of IQs." Charlotte looks up from the list.

"Take the tens place and the ones place and reverse them." I don't look up from last year's report on the state of the faction that I am reading.

"Norton!" Her gasp causes a smile to cross my lips. "Ian didn't have a chance of leading the faction!"

"He had less of a chance than he thought." Smirking, I open the drawer on my right to remove the folder with the IQ test scores from the retests that happened when Donovan died. Taking out the first page, I hand it over to Charlotte. "Here is the first page of the scores from the most recent IQ test."

Looking over the page, Charlotte's eyes pop up to mine. "I am number three?"

My smile is my answer.

She looks back at the paper and starts muttering, "I had no idea. Dad… Devon… Devon's wife, Agatha… there he is, number thirty-seven?"

"Ian's belief in his stellar IQ might be more than it should be." Since his wife is in the room, I try to keep from laughing at him.

But I don't need to. Charlotte's laugh rings out. "If this becomes public, it will take his ego down a notch or two!"

* * *

"Do you want to have the Faction know who your successor is?" Charlotte asks, looking up from the paper she is reading.

I contemplate this for a minute. "IQ doesn't usually change, but it can vary. I don't think I want a stated heir. I think I'm looking more at wanting to make sure the most likely candidates have experience with the day-to-day running of the faction, special projects that are being worked on, things like that."

Charlotte nods absently. "That makes sense, but how big of a group do you want?"

"Large enough that we have the person with the highest IQ in it."

"Most of the time, you can probably do that with just one person. But how do we know how big this group needs to be?" Charlotte pushes me. "You were pretty far down on the list. It won't be a small group if we make sure it would have included you."

Brushing off her comment, I remind her, "I'm an anomaly. It wouldn't have mattered how big or how small the group was. Donovan would have made sure that I wasn't in it."

Charlotte studies me. "Why is that?"

"He saw me first and foremost as a transfer. He was going to do everything he could to make sure I wouldn't lead his faction."

Charlotte rephrases her question, "Why does it matter how big the group is?"

"I plan on using these people to help me run this faction, kind of like an advisory group. I want to make sure that I have the best, but I don't want us to be tripping over each. other."

"That makes sense…" Her voice trails off as she looks over the first page of the most recent IQ tests again.

"I'm hoping it is a somewhat varied group. Get different jobs and perspectives."

"I'm thinking a dozen." Charlotte looks over the top names.

"Why a dozen?" I look over the top of my glasses at her.

"Part of what you want is a varied group to work with, right?"

I lean back in my chair. "That's right."

"It's a varied group. At twelve, you'll have doctors and scientists, a teacher, a statistician," she smiles at the reference to herself, "and researchers. We'll also have a range of ages. There will be one person from the last initiation class as well as a couple of people my father's age."

I chew on the arm of my glasses. "Twelve. Can we cut that down any?"

"What do you think of ten? With ten, you still have all of the above. It cuts out the one from last initiation and one of the older people that I thought might be good for experience," Charlotte looks up from her list, "but it still keeps a couple around Father's age, so you will have some experience."

"Ten. The Top Ten." I smile at the name. "Yes, ten will work. We'll call them the Top Ten."

 **If you get a chance, please leave a review. I'm having some struggles with the story right now. Chapter 15 has been written and rewritten more times than I care to remember and... I realized I'm going to have to do it again. I could really use some motivation right now!**


	14. Chapter 14

_**(7-19-2019)**_

 **Characters-**

 **Devon- is a nemesis of Charlotte. He was suspended from trivia at one point in time for cheating.**

 **Conroy- Initiation mentor**

 **Charlotte- friend from initiation and now an initiation mentor**

 **Sage- Initiation mentor**

 **Agatha- (only mentioned before) Bea's identical twin sister**

 **Bea-Norton's partner for Geo-search time. Was interested in Patrick (and married him.)**

 **Graham- Norton's mentor in initiation and Charlotte's father. He was aware of Norton's true IQ and helped him to prepare to be the leader.**

 **Taryn- Norton's wife**

 **Lisette- Norton's only daughter and youngest child**

 **Anderson- Norton's middle child, second son**

 **Ian- Charlotte's husband, part of Norton and Charlotte's initiation group.**

 **Beverly- Charlotte and Ian's daughter. She and Lisette are the same age.**

 **Raymond- (mentioned) Norton's oldest child and son. Norton sent him to Dauntless.**

 **Marion- Friend from initiation**

 **Alistair- (mentioned) Marion's husband.**

 **Glynis- Norton's personal secretary**

 **Chapter 14**

"What are we doing here?" I hear Devon ask in hushed voice as I walk into the conference room that has been set aside for my Top Ten. I look around the room at the collection of people who are milling around the rectangular table. The ten people in this room stand together in pairs. As soon as they realize that I am in the room, all conversations stop.

"Good morning. I appreciate all of you coming and joining me today. I'm sure you are all wondering what you are doing here. After I became the leader of Erudite, they gave me the list of everyone's IQ. When you look around this room, you are seeing the top ten IQ's, after mine, in Erudite." I wait, letting everyone look around the room to see who else is here. Moving to the head of the table, I put my hands on the back of the chair. "You each have a number, and although the entire Faction will be retested when I die, that number represents where you currently rank with your IQ. Edmund, please sit to my right. You are number one."

Edmund moves away from Devon and takes the seat next to me. Edmund is near Graham's age and has been Taryn's endocrinologist, for her diabetes ever since she was diagnosed with uncontrolled diabetes shortly after Lisette's birth.

"Conroy," I call out next. In addition to being the head of all three schools, he became the lead initiation mentor when Graham stepped down. He takes the seat on my other side.

"Charlotte," I force myself from smiling at her. I don't want there to be anyone to think that I am favoring my statistician. She sits next to Edmund.

"Sage." Sage was the youngest initiation mentor when I was in initiation, but Charlotte now holds that honor. She takes the next seat on the right side of the table. Sage is the assistant director of emergency medicine.

"Agatha." Agatha is my highest placed transfer. She works, along with her twin sister, Bea, in Information and Technology.

"Devon." Devon looks a little glum as he takes the next seat across from his wife. Like Ian will be, he's disappointed to find out he scored lower than his wife. Unlike Charlotte and Ian where there is a distinct difference, Agatha and Devon actually scored the same, but remembering Charlotte's words about the cheating scandal he was in, I choose to seat her higher than him. Devon works in Research and Development under Graham, although he specializes in serum development.

"Bea." Bea and Agatha could make an interesting case study. Mirror-image twins, not only do they both work in IT, but their IQ's are only a point off of each other. Bea married Patrick.

"Graham." My old mentor from initiation smiles at me as he takes the seat. Although he is no longer a mentor, he still heads Research and Development.

"Salome," A coffee-colored woman with long, dark, wavy hair takes the next seat. She is my last transfer, coming from Dauntless. Like me, Agatha, and Bea, Donovan had falsified her IQ results. She is an elementary teacher and had no idea her IQ was so high.

"And Randall." Randall tries to look confident as he takes his seat, but his eyes show his awe at the group he now finds himself in. Only a year past initiation, he sits among the smartest of the smart. He is Marion's nephew and is studying medicine. I will need to analyze where to put him.

Edmund looks down the table. "We are a very diverse group. You say that we have the ten highest IQ's, but why have you brought us together?"

I start off looking at him as I answer, but I shift my eyes from person to person as I begin my explanation. "I was at a disadvantage when I took over this faction. I had no idea who the key players are or what different people do. I want to surround myself with the people who not only have the highest IQ's, but work in different areas and can help me make the best decisions for our faction. I'm sure that as we get to know each other better, there will be other things that I will ask of you, but for right now you are my advisory group. I want to make the best, most logical decisions for our faction. You are the smartest of the smart. I want your help to make sure I can do that."

* * *

"Norton! Did you forget to brush your hair again?" Taryn hands Lisette the cupcakes while we wait for someone to open the door for us, so she has a free hand to try to smooth down my hair. "You really need to get a haircut."

"Taryn! Did you bring it?" Jeremiah, Devon and Agatha's youngest, opens the door. With Taryn's hands empty and not seeing Lisette holding the hoped-for dessert, Jeremiah's shoulders slump.

Shortly after I organized the Top Ten, Sage decided that if we are going to be a close group that we need to get together with our families once a month and just hang out.

Today is one of these get-togethers. Taryn's cake recipe, which I eventually discovered came from her Dauntless grandmother, is always requested by the children. She started bringing it as cupcakes, to help with portion control after Doctor Edmund lectured her about her diabetes when he caught her with a large piece of cake. She recently quit eating it while everyone is together. It is very popular and there is rarely anything left, but if there is, I make sure that none of it makes it home. It's pointless though, since I've notice that she seems to be leaving extras at our house to make sure that she always gets at least one.

"Jeremiah!" I call out to him as he turns dejectedly to walk away. "Could you take this for Lisette?"

A wide grin breaks out on his face as she hands him the cupcakes to take to the table. He grabs them and takes off, calling to the other kids, "She brought them!"

Taryn laughs and follows warning him, "Don't start eating those now. You have to eat your dinner first."

"You can't get her to quit making them, either!" Charlotte says by way of greeting, "I tried to get her to bring a fruit salad. I thought since it would be sweet, that maybe she would go for it."

"I know you tried," I say dryly, turning to Anderson. "Please put the fruit salad on the table."

Charlotte's shoulders shake with suppressed laughter. "Enough picking on my best friend. Edmund and Sage are at it again about the upcoming budget."

"Lead on," I say with a flourish of my hand in the direction of the raised voices.

It has become an unofficial part of these gatherings, that at some point in time those of us who are part of the Top Ten will get together to discuss one of the current issues that we are trying to handle.

"We need to spend on prevention." Edmund's voice carries as we get closer.

"Yes, prevention is important, but accidents happen to everyone," Sage argues. "You can't take funding from our emergency system."

"Charlotte," Edmund notices that we have joined them, "What percentage of the population has a chronic disease?"

Sage turns to Charlotte as well. "And how many of those people end up in the emergency room either because of complications from their disease or because of accidents? And then add into that the percentage of the rest of the population that receives services for accidents and other non-chronic related emergencies. More people use the emergency room, whether here or in the clinics in their Faction. Emergency services covers the entire population, not just a percentage of it."

"But think about how much it would help you to be able to focus on the true emergencies if we could keep the preventable, chronic disease portion out of it?" Edmund shoots back.

They both turn expectantly to Charlotte. "I don't have any of those numbers with me right now. I'll have to look them up in the next day or two. I can bring them to the next meeting."

"Devon," Sage turns to the member of the Top Ten standing closest to her, "do you know more people with a chronic condition, or more people have been to the emergency facilities for an accident?"

Devon excuses himself from his conversation with Bea and her husband, Patrick. "Are we counting Taryn as someone I know?"

It's an odd comment for him to make, but I understand it. Since Doctor Edmund has lectured Taryn about her eating habits at more than one of these dinners, everyone in this group knows that Taryn is a diabetic, but if we didn't have these meals together, most of them wouldn't know she was.

As usual, Ian gravitates towards our group. The IQ's below the top ten were never announced, and he seems very confident that when Edmund or Graham steps down, he will be stepping up to their position. As far as I know, Charlotte never informed him that, statistically speaking, he's won't to make it into the Top Ten. "I don't know that many people with chronic conditions, or that have been in the ER. Maybe that funding should be funneled into research and development, and we should be able to use it as we see fit. I'm sure that..."

Just then Beverly, yells, "Just because you are older than me, doesn't mean you can make me do it!"

Charlotte looks over at Ian. "Ian, can you check on Beverly, please?"

A sour look crosses Ian's face as he walks away from the group.

* * *

It feels odd to be watching a Trivia game and not playing in it, but this year, Anderson is playing junior trivia. Raymond never had any interest in playing, and since our team had to quit playing when Marion and Alistair got engaged, it has been years since I've been to a match.

Lisette wants to sit next to me, so I sit third from the end with Lisette next to me, and Beverly next to her. The girls watch with interested for the first half of the match before they get restless. When they start to whisper, Ian leans forward and snaps at the girls that they need to be quiet.

Beverly sits back in her chair. Lisette cuddles up next to me. "We're getting bored. Is this almost over?"

Carrying a notebook is a habit I have maintained from my days in the library. I take out the notebook and my pen. "Do you have a something to write with?" I ask Taryn.

She rummages through her purse and hands me another pen with a puzzled look on her face. Writing one word at the top of the page I hand it and the two pens to the girls. "See how many words you can make out of the word 'KNOWLEDGE'."

Both girls grin at me, put their heads together and start writing. I keep an eye on the girls, and give them new words to use when they have found all the words that they can. Lisette isn't as into the game as much Beverly is, which surprises me, since I started the game for her. She comes up with fewer words, and sometimes is paying such little attention to what she is doing that she reverses letters.

When the game is finished, we stand around chatting. "Why did we quit playing Trivia?" Charlotte asks.

Marion laughs. "At the time, your best friend married the emcee, and you couldn't play because he could be biased."

Charlotte beams at that answer. "Then since Alistair isn't doing Trivia any longer, we can play again."

This time it is Taryn who laughs at her.

"What's so funny? We are a good team!" Charlotte sounds offended.

"Most of us, including you, can't play anymore," Taryn informs her reluctantly.

Charlotte challenges her. "Give me one good reason why we can't play again."

"Who do you think is going to be willing to tell the leader of Erudite or one of his Top Ten that they answered a question wrong?" Taryn asks. "You have no idea the hoops we had to jump through to get them to let Anderson play. No one wanted to tell Norton's son that he was wrong."

Charlotte's shoulders slump in defeat.

* * *

"Excuse me," Salome interrupts the conversation I am having with Agatha, Bea, and Conroy about some new technology they are developing for the upper levels, "I need to talk to Norton."

Puzzled, I follow Salome. When she walked up to us, I thought she would be joining our conversation to see if it would have an application in the lower levels, too. "What do you need?"

Salome takes a deep breath. "I need to talk to you and Taryn. She's in my bedroom, waiting for us."

Closing the door, Salome takes a deep breath and starts without hesitation. "Lisette's teacher wants to talk to you, but she's intimidated by Norton, so she asked me to speak to you, since I know you both better than she does. She's worried about Lisette."

Taryn recovers more quickly than I do. "In what way?"

"She asked me to start off by assuring you that Lisette is smart, but she is still struggling in reading, and that is affecting her other grades. She thinks that Lisette may have a learning disability called dyslexia."

Dazed, I struggle to remember what I know about dyslexia. It seems like years ago, I did some research for a special education teacher on it, but I don't remember for sure. Sounding clinical, I start to recite what I remember. "A dyslexic processes information differently. For example, they don't see many letters the same way we do."

"That's certainly part of it."

Lisette still stumbles over basic words when she reads to me, but there can't be something like that wrong with my little girl. I'm the smartest of the smart. Taryn is mathematically gifted. Lisette can't have a learning disability.

While I am still processing everything, Taryn speaks up. "What do we need to do?"

Salome starts, "We'd like your permission to get Lisette tested."

The door opens up while she is talking. "Norton, I want to talk to you about..." Ian doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence.

My hands clench with fury. How dare he interrupt a personal conversation with one of his petty attempts to gain admittance into the inner group!

Salome must see the fury on my face, because she turns around before I can. "Ian, we're having a non-work-related conversation right now. You'll have to talk to Norton another time."

* * *

"What are you doing?"

Taryn jumps and turns towards me guiltily, a smear of chocolate by her dimple. "Making Lisette's birthday cake."

Walking over to Taryn, I keep my voice nonchalant. "It's hard to believe our baby is going to be twelve tomorrow."

My hand goes up as if to cup her face. Taryn closes her eyes and tips her head up for the kiss she is expecting, but instead I wipe the cake batter off her face.

Her eyes fly open and she looks at my finger. "I had to make sure it tastes right."

"What have your numbers been lately?" My voice is stern. I know the answer to that. She's been running close to three hundred lately.

"I knew I was going to make this tonight. I've been very careful about what I ate today."

I force myself to take a deep breath so I don't yell at her. "You need to be careful every day."

"Doctor Edmund is a worry wart. I feel fine."

"He's told you before: just because you feel fine doesn't mean it isn't doing damage to your body." How many times do I have to remind her of this? "Do you want to end up with any of the complications we discussed last time? Losing a limb to poor circulation, blindness due to retinopathy, or maybe you just want to be on dialysis due to diabetic nephropathy!"

"No," her voice is soft.

"Then eat carefully all the time. Please."

* * *

Anderson's Choosing Day is getting closer and Lisette is still struggling in school, despite her special tutor for her dyslexia. Each day brings me closer to needing to decide who will stay in Erudite and who I will send to Amity. I spend time with the children, both together and apart, trying to feel who belongs where. I was right to send Raymond, Ray as he is now known, to Dauntless. In the time I have spent with them, neither of the children still at home has shown a particular aptitude for fool-hardiness or bravery.

Tonight, while Charlotte and Taryn attend a lecture on differential equations, I take Anderson and Lisette, along with a telescope, to the old Doane observatory. A bit of nostalgia for watching the stars in Amity has caused me to contemplate the idea of renovating the telescope inside, but I have problems believing that there won't be light pollution from the city that will keep this from being a good place to put the telescope.

In my memory, the stars are brighter in the countryside where I grew up than they are here in the city, but I'm not sure if they really are brighter, or if it is just my imperfect memory. Patiently, I go through the steps with the children of setting up the telescope. Taking turns, we each look through it, and when it is not our turn, we lie on our backs, studying the whole night sky at once.

"What do you see?" I ask Anderson when he moves away from the telescope to give Lisette a turn.

Anderson licks his lips. "I see questions. How many stars are there? What are they made out of? How big are they?"

"Really? Lisette giggles at her brother and, pointing to the sky, she traces the stars. "I see a bird flying away from a pot that someone is trying to catch it in!"

The similarity to the conversation I once had with my Amity family jolts me. Anderson, like me, sees the science. He sees the stars as an Erudite.

Lisette sees the pictures, like my family in Amity.

It is the stars that decide Anderson will remain in Erudite and that I will have to sacrifice the desire of my heart again, and send Lisette, my baby girl, to Amity.

* * *

"I've been looking into the feasibility of updating the Aptitude Test," Ian tells me, handing me a folder of his results. He sits, without invitation.

Puzzled I take the folder. He wasn't assigned to any feasibility study. He is taking advantage of our "friendship." Not wanting to encourage him to stick around, I remain standing. "Why do you think we need to update the Aptitude Test?"

Excitedly he moves to the front of his chair and leans over with his elbows planted on his knees. "I was talking to a couple of co-workers and found out there is a flaw in the test."

Despite myself, I am suddenly curious at what he has to say. "What is the flaw?"

"I always thought everyone was like me and knew they were in a simulation, but I found out last week that this isn't the case. Every single one of my co-workers, who was in the conversation was unaware. It needs to be the same for everyone. We need to fix it so that either everyone is aware, or no one is aware."

Taking off my glasses, I start chewing on the arm, trying to still my pounding heart, trying to stay unemotional, while I remember what Edith Prior wrote in her secret journal entry…

 _ **to be able to tell that someone is Divergent will be that they are aware during a simulation.**_

"What's wrong?" Ian asks. Evidently, I haven't kept my concern off my face.

Thinking quickly, I respond logically. "I don't like the idea of finding that it isn't consistent for everyone. This isn't going to look good when it comes out. Who knows?"

"Just you and me," Ian assures me.

Pointing at him with my glasses, I point out the flaw in his statement. "I thought you just said you were talking to your co-workers about it."

Ian deliberately takes off his glasses and breathes on them and wipes them clean before replacing them and then answering. "They were talking about how realistic it was and how surprised they were when they woke up from it. I didn't share my experience. I realized that if anyone else knew, the integrity of the Aptitude test could be questioned. I was afraid of what the repercussions of that would be."

"Good." I replace my glasses on my face. "Keep it that way. Let me read your feasibility study and think about how we want to handle this."

"I look forward to hearing from you about it." He stands and leaves the room.

"Ian." I stop him before he leaves, hoping my voice sounds nonchalant. "Have you told Charlotte about this?"

"I told you I didn't tell anyone. That includes Charlotte." He sounds offended that I am checking with him.

"I just wanted to make sure. I've found that some people don't count their spouse. Keep it that way for now. I want to keep the number of people who know about this limited until we have it fixed. Once I've figured out what we need to do, we'll bring her in as the statistician if we need one."

* * *

"I'm getting ready to leave. Do you need anything else, Norton?" Glynis asks.

Pretending to be startled, I look up from computer where I have been vainly trying to immerse myself back into the issues of the day ever since Ian left. "Is it that late already?" I look down at the screen like I am checking the time, completely aware that she's already three minutes late in leaving. "Could you let Taryn know I'm tied up here? Tell her I don't know what time I'll be home tonight."

"After I do that, do you need me to stay late and help with anything?"

"No. I appreciate the offer, but these are things I need to handle on my own, thank you." I turn her down quickly. I've been waiting for her to leave so that I can have the privacy that I need to think through the implications of what Ian told me today.

It is hard to wait at my desk until Glynis comes back and lets me know that she spoke with Taryn and that if I'm sure I don't need her, she will see me in the morning. Somehow, I manage to stay seated still until I hear the latch of the door click, confirming that she is gone.

That sound brings me to my feet. I have always thought better when I move, pacing back and forth letting my mind float with the motion.

Ian is Divergent.

I should have realized that of all the people I know, Ian would be the one that is damaged.

What do I do about this?

Of all the people to discover that some people are aware during the Aptitude Test, it would be Ian.

And of all the reasons for him to find out, it is because he is one of them.

He is a Divergent.

I can't let him "fix" the Aptitude Test. Not the way that he thinks it needs to be fixed. I need it fixed so that no one like him will be able to hide the fact that they were aware!

I have to keep him from telling anyone else what he knows about the Aptitude Test.

I have to figure out how to protect our city from him.

There is no way to keep him quiet for long. If I let him work on it, he it will "slip" at some point in time, as proof that he is important and trusted by me. If I don't let him work on it, he will find a way to let people know that I am aware of the issue in order to discredit me.

The instant Ian imparted his discovery with me, I knew there was only one option. Our city was created to protect us from people like him. And yet somehow, like I always suspected, they are here.

It is my job to get rid of any of them that I find.

Now for the most important question of the night.

How do I kill Ian?

 **So, Norton has found his first Divergent! Please leave me a review and let me know what you think, and what you think Norton will do...**


	15. Chapter 15

_**(8-9-2015)**_

 **Characters**

 **Patrick- (mentioned) friend from Initiation, he's a doctor**

 **Ian- Charlotte's husband. Norton recently found out he's Divergent**

 **Donovan- (mentioned) deceased, previous faction leader. He committed suicide using the Erudite Serum.**

 **Beverly- Charlotte's and Ian's daughter**

 **Bea and Agatha - members of the Top 10**

 **Lisette- (mentioned) Norton's and Taryn's daughter**

 **Anderson- Norton's and Taryn's middle child**

 **Raymond (Ray) - (mentioned) Norton's and Taryn's oldest child. Norton sent him to Dauntless before he became the leader.**

 **Glynis - Norton's secretary**

 **Graham- Norton's mentor, Head of Research and Development, member of the Top Ten**

 **Devon- Member of the Top Ten, part of Research and Development, specifically in serum development**

 **Thank you for the reviews, as always I enjoyed reading each of them. And yes, to quote both jvoosen and BK2U "And so it begins..."**

 **Chapter 15**

It is ridiculously hard to kill someone.

It shouldn't be. People die all the time. They - the Divergent - killed my parents and who knows how many others without leaving a trace.

Why can't I, the smartest person in the city, figure out how kill one person?

The copy of the drive I made for Patrick back when he was trying to decide what branch of medicine he wanted to work in is still in my possession. Looking over it for inspiration turns into an exercise in futility. There is no way to give Ian cancer, a heart attack, a stroke, or any other fatal disease.

Accidents such as falling down a flight of stairs are investigated. I can't be seen on the Dauntless' security cameras pushing him down a long flight of steps.

Over and over again, I come back to one idea: the Erudite serum. But if I request it and Ian dies...it would be hard to explain.

And ever since Donovan requested it and killed himself, they have put even more restrictions on it.

How do I get some of the Erudite serum?

How do I kill Ian?

* * *

It dawns on me that I need somewhere private: a location in Erudite where there are no cameras, where I can work on the Divergent problem without having to worry that someone will see something.

Since movement has always helped me think, I take to wandering the building. I contemplate how to rid ourselves of Ian, who I know is Divergent, and any other Divergent that must be out there. My eyes train themselves to observe the cameras, hoping to find that perfect spot where the cameras don't reach and I can orchestrate his accident.

But it doesn't exist.

If it doesn't exist, I will have to create it.

How do I create it?

Where do I put it?

The top floor has potential. It is a large open storage space. The accumulated junk of a faction fills it. Broken office furniture, discarded technology, failed experiments.

There are cameras sporadically in the room, so it doesn't work now, but after I have… disposed of my current Divergent problem, I will take over the space. I will create a lab where I, and as I am ready to bring them in, my Top Ten, will be able to work on solving the Divergent problem.

I start my delaying tactics by asking Ian, "What do you think you will need in order to start on the Aptitude Test?"

Ian smiles smugly, like he knew eventually I would come begging him for help, and he can get anything and everything he wants. "I've been waiting for you to approve it, so I don't have a written list. I can give you an idea off the top of my head, or if you give me a week, I can submit a written list." He knows I need a complete list. He's trying to put me on his time table.

Pretending to think, I chew on the arm of my glasses. It doesn't surprise me that Ian assumes this means his project has been approved. "You misunderstand me, Ian. Your project hasn't been approved yet. This is something that I will need to present to the Top Ten. Before I can present it to them, I need a list of what you are going to need."

Ian slouches in his chair, and then sits up straight to challenge me. "I thought you were the leader and ran things here. I didn't realize you weren't smart enough to do it without a committee."

Attempting not to bristle at his response, I reply in a calmer voice than I feel, "I am smart enough to realize that there will be aspects of this that you and I won't think of. My Top Ten includes someone who works exclusively in serums, two people who work on technology, and the person who heads your department. I would be remiss in not using them to make sure we aren't overlooking anything."

My words have the intended effect. Ian quickly backs down. "How detailed of a list do you want?"

"As detailed as you can possibly make it in two weeks. If you miss anything in that time period, I'm sure my experts will catch it." I put in my own dig.

It's the start of my stalling tactic with him. I give him just enough to keep him from telling anyone about the problem with the Aptitude Test, while I figure out how to kill him.

* * *

"Father?" Beverly approaches Ian while he is talking to Bea and Agatha the next day at our monthly Top Ten dinner.

Ian doesn't even turn towards her. "Not right now, Beverly. You can see I'm talking to adults. You will have to wait until we are finished."

Beverly turns away, her shoulders sagging.

Gesturing her to come over to me, I ask, "What do you need?"

"Lisette and I are working on our science homework and we need some help."

Standing up, I motion for her to lead the way. "Well, if my girls need help, I'd better see what they need."

Beverly beams to be called one of my girls.

Ever since I decided that Lisette would be a better fit for Amity, I have been working to cultivate my relationship with Beverly. Her father may be Divergent, but she is Charlotte's daughter, not Ian's. She has her mother's sweetness and perfection, not her father's arrogance and damage. I'm going to need someone to fill the hole that my little girl leaving is going to leave in my life. Her best friend seems like the perfect choice.

* * *

Appropriately, it is a picture of water that Anderson chooses. A roaring, broiling wall of water that is starting to curl over itself. Without the high wall of water, it would remind me of a sound wave with crests and troughs showing multiple times.

"What are we doing here?" Anderson asks me as we stand in front of his painting.

"We need to talk without anyone hearing us. Your Aptitude Test is coming up, and we need to talk before it does. I fully expect you to test as Erudite, but even if you don't," I take a deep breath, "I need you to stay in Erudite."

"Father, I understand now that you are the leader, it has to be a bit of an embarrassment that Raymond left for Dauntless, but you don't have to worry. Lisette and I will never do that to you."

"I **sent** Raymond to Dauntless."

Anderson looks skeptical. "Why would you do that?"

"When I worked in the library, I found out things about the city that no one else knows. One of those things is that there is a group of people known as Divergent. We were put in this city to protect us from them. I sent Raymond to Dauntless. I need to know how Dauntless works so that if the Divergent ever return, I will be able to get the Dauntless to protect the city."

"What makes you think they will return?" My son questions me.

"They have been here in my lifetime. When I was four years old, they infiltrated the city, causing a riot. My parents were killed in that riot."

Anderson disbelieves my statement. "There has been no riot, no violence in our city since the Factions were founded. Our system has eradicated hatred and brutality."

"For the most part it has, but the riot did happen."

"And no one remembers this?" his tone is skeptical

"Each faction has a serum. Since becoming the leader of Erudite, I have made it my job to find out what each of them is. Dauntless's brings on hallucinations of fears. Candor's forces you to tell the truth. Amity's calms people down and brings peace. Erudite's is the death serum. It can be used if a Candor judge and jury convict someone of murder. It can also be used, with both an Erudite doctor's and an Amity counselor's permission, at the end of a terminally ill patient's life. Abnegation's causes people to forget their memories. The Abnegation serum was used on the entire population to cause them to forget what had happened. They rewrote our history."

Anderson's look of doubt doesn't waiver. What my Dauntless son accepted so quickly, my Erudite son questions. It is another proof that he should stay here. I wonder what my daughter will do when I tell her our history.

He speaks slowly, choosing his words carefully while he thinks it through. "Let's say this did happen. You sent Raymond to Dauntless, but you refuse to see him. How does that help?"

I smile back to my younger son. "Who says I refuse to see him?"

"Mother goes to see him every year. You have never gone with her."

"That's true, but that doesn't mean I don't see your brother. I see him more often that your mother does. This painting you picked out, this is where I will meet you if we ever need to talk where we can't be overheard. We will come up with a code so that we will be able to tell each other, even if other people are around, that we need to meet. It's a little more challenging, with your brother, but we still manage. Raymond goes by Ray now. It is a more Dauntless name. I have a place here that I meet him. He is supposed to find a Dauntless-born girl to marry. You will marry an Abnegation transfer."

Anderson's mouth drops open. "What?"

Holding in an impatient huff, I explain to him, "Lisette will go to Amity. Each of you will have two children: one to stay in the faction you live in, the other to come back to Erudite. You are the exception. If your mother's health hadn't prevented it, we would have had a fourth child, and I would have sent that child to Abnegation."

"Why will Lisette go to Amity?"

"Amity has secrets. There are people outside the fence, past Amity. They are aware of us, but I don't know what they do or know. I will send Lisette there to find out for me."

"And I am to marry someone from Abnegation so I can send a child to Abnegation and…"

"They can find out what, if anything, the government knows about all of this."

* * *

Opening the folder that Ian hands me, I give it a cursory glance before closing it and putting it on my desk. "Ian, I appreciate your work on this. When we agreed to two weeks, we both neglected to think about the fact that tomorrow is Choosing Day."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ian sounds sullen.

Evidently, Ian is even more self-centered than I thought he was. "Thirty percent of my Top Ten are initiation mentors." His wife is one of them, and he should know what that means.

"So?"

"Until initiation is over, unless there is an emergency, the Top Ten will only meet to discuss the Initiates. This allows the mentors to concentrate on giving us the best new members they can." Tapping the folder his request is in, I make sure he understands. "This is not an emergency."

When he leaves, I smile. I've just bought myself another month. Surely within a month I can figure out how to kill him.

"You decided to treat it as an emergency, and they've decided I can work on it?" Ian's excitement is palpable.

"Not exactly..." I let it trail off to see how long he can wait for me to explain that statement. It turns out not to be long at all.

"What do you mean, not exactly?"

"You made me think the other day." I start by stroking his ego. "Your comment that I, as the faction leader, shouldn't need to consult them. I don't want to give them the idea that they are running the faction instead of me. So, we are going to keep things quiet while you do the preliminary work. I'll bring in the needed players after you have started it, but until we get to that point, I want you to be the only person working on this. I don't want you discussing this with anyone else. We're going to make it very clear who is in control."

Ian grins. "Of course."

"I do need you to fill out a budget request. When you have it filled out, give it directly to me or Glynis, if I'm not available." I hand him the form.

"I'll get started on it right away. Is there anything else?"

"That will be all for now." I wait until Ian is out of the room and has had time to get past Glynis and out of my office area before I turn on the intercom. "Glynis."

There is a pause before she responds, "All clear."

I smile as she lets me know there is no one with her, but quickly school my features so the smile doesn't show in my voice. "The next time Ian shows up, tell him I am either out or in a meeting. Offer to take the paperwork from him. He's driving me crazy."

"No problem." Glynis let me know early on that Donovan had used her to run interference if he didn't want to meet with someone.

If I don't take the paperwork from Ian directly, I can deny that I ever got it, if I need to. I look over the list he gave me today. I think I can recognize the elements from the Erudite Serum that will cause death. Now I just need to figure out what the key ingredients are for the Erudite serum and how to get my hands on them…

"I realize the mentors need to be getting by to our Initiates, but does anyone have any more questions for them before we end our meeting?"

Everyone looks around the table, but no one responds.

"Then we are finished with the meeting. Graham and Devon, can I speak with both of you after everyone else has left? The rest of you, have a good day. We'll meet again next week."

The rest of the group files out, talking about more personal matters as they leave. Sage's idea to get to know each other outside of work seems to have drawn the group together.

"Devon, would you mind stepping outside for a few minutes while I speak to Norton?"

Since I'm the one who asked to speak to both of them, Devon looks confused by Graham's request. He turns to me for direction. I nod and he leaves the room sullenly.

"What's up?"

Graham smiles. "I want to ask a favor of you."

"What?"

"I want Anderson assigned to me."

My shock must register on my face. "Why do you want Anderson?"

"I've seen the start of his personal project, and I think he has talent."

"Not everyone would really want to have my son in their department."

"That's part of why I want him. I'll treat him like any other newbie, Norton. He won't get preferential treatment from me, and he won't have unrealistic expectations put on him, either. I'll make sure my team understands that he is to be treated like anyone else. You don't have to worry about it," Graham assures me.

"I'll keep that in mind when we discuss where to assign them."

"That's all I ask. Thank you."

"Do you need anything else?"

"No, that should be long enough to make Devon stew." Graham gives a small laugh, I'll get him now."

While I wait for Graham to return with Devon, I pull out the departmental budget request of serums. My idea is a bit of a long shot, but it is the best idea I have come up with. "I need your help on the budget request for serums."

"What do you need?" Graham asks.

"I'd like a little more specificity to it."

Graham motions to Devon who takes the list that I hold out to him and looks over it. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'd like a list of all the serums that you work with, how much of each you make during the average year, and what chemicals you need to make each of them."

"You are checking up on us?" He sounds insulted.

"Each year I try to get to know one of the departments better and I ask for more specific information on it. This year it is serums." I make my voice sound off-handed. It is true that I have been trying to learn more about my faction, and that each year I do ask one group for more information, but it is more of a spot-check. I wasn't planning on serums for a couple more years, but... I need this information quickly and quietly.

Devon looks quizzically at Graham. Serums is its own branch within Research and Development... an area that Ian desperately wants to break into. "You head the department. Get together the list Norton asked for, run it past me, and then get it to him."

"How long do you expect it to take?"

"How important is it?" Devon asks respectfully.

"I'd like it by the end of the week."

"You'll have it by then."

"Thank you"

Taking that as their dismissal, Devon and Graham leave the room.

Once the door is closed, I smile. Step one is started. I don't dare ask for the Erudite serum, but If I can get a list for all of the ingredients together, I can figure out a way to have them on hand for me to use. Since we are keeping the overhaul of the serum secret, who can Ian try the serum on except himself? If one of Ian's trails for his unapproved revamp of the Aptitude Test happens to include all of the ingredients, who will blame me?

Thanks to Donovan's paranoia that added cameras to Erudite, I have to be careful with the final details. It helps to find out that we are supposed to be doing random purity samples for all serum ingredients and the serums themselves. A well-placed accident as I return them to Devon after the testing takes care of covering my tracks. No one will know that when the extra was returned, the key ingredients to the Erudite serum are nothing more than colored water.

Soon, I hope, Ian will decide he wants to test what he has so far. He's going to want a volunteer, but since he is the only person we know who is aware, and we are trying to keep the flaw under wraps, he will have to be the one who tries it out.

And then all I need to do is be reluctant enough to insist we do it after hours.

Nothing about this project has officially crossed my desk. There is no paper trail to either Graham, his supervisor, or to me giving official sanction for this project. Graham and the rest of the Top Ten are completely in the dark that this project even exists.

When Ian dies in the simulation, it will be his own fault for taking on something he wasn't qualified to do. It will be ruled an accident. The plug will be pulled on his unauthorized project. We will keep the current Aptitude Test, at least until I figure out a better way to get rid of the people I discover.

Now all that is left is to do is wait.


	16. Chapter 16

**(08/23/2019)**

 **Thank you to Bahrfamily, for staying up late so this can go out today! I** **appreciate** **it!**

 **To everyone else, thank you for** **continuing** **to read!**

 **Characters**

 **Graham- Norton's mentor, part of Top Ten, Charlotte's father**

 **Glynis- Norton's secretary**

 **Randall- (Mentioned) part of Top Ten**

 **Edmund- (Mentioned) part of Top Ten, he's closer to Graham's age**

 **Ian- part of Norton's** **initiation** **class, married to Charlotte, Beverly's father, Divergent.**

 **Taryn- (Mentioned) Norton's wfe**

 **Conroy - Head initiation mentor**

 **Charlotte- part of Norton's initiation class, member of Top Ten, Ian's wife, Beverly's mother**

 **Sage- Initiation mentor**

 **Anderson- (Mentioned) Norton and Taryn's middle child**

 **Lisette- (Mentioned) Norton and Taryn's youngest child and only daguther**

 **Beverly- (Mentioned) Charlotte and Ian's daughter, Lisette's best friend**

 **Ava- (Mentioned for the first time, but she's only mentioned) Lisette and Beverly's friend (and... if you have read The Blackest Shade of Gray... yes, it's the same Ava.)**

 **Chapter 16**

"There's no surprising me by waiting in my office," I tease Graham as I walk into Glynis's reception area after a lunch meeting.

With a wink to Glynis, Graham teases back as we enter my office together. "Oh, if this was a social visit, I probably could have sweet talked her into letting me wait for you in YOUR office."

Disappointment fills me. I was hoping this was a social visit that could give my mind a rest from Ian. With a week left in initiation, I thought he would be trying to make more progress. He has to realize that his best chance to stay on point in this project is to make significant advances while the Top Ten is unaware of what he is doing. As soon as I bring the Aptitude Test to their attention, Devon is going to insist on being the lead on the project for very valid reasons; he is both assigned to serums and a member of the Top Ten, and Ian isn't either. I try to keep my voice light, and the disappointment out of my voice. "I'm sure you could have, but what brings you here today if this isn't a social visit?"

"The final IQ test is coming up," Graham reminds me as we close the door of my office behind us. "Charlotte had us over for dinner last night, and I think you may be getting ready to face something new."

Pulling off my glasses, I point with them to the chairs in front of my desk. "What do you think is going to happen?"

Graham sits in one of the chairs, as I sit in the other. "Charlotte didn't name names, but it sounds like she is expecting one of the initiates to test into the Top Ten. Have you thought through how that is going to work?"

"Randall will relegated to number eleven and will no longer be part of the Top Ten," I state, fervently hoping that the initiate in question is going to be Anderson.

Graham takes a deep breath and leans forward in his seat. "I think that is the wrong thing to do."

"What do you think I should do?"

"I think you should allow me to step down."

For a moment I am speechless. When I can manage to speak, ask. "Why would I do that?"

"Norton, I am old enough to be the grandfather of Randall and the new initiate. The chance of me actually becoming the leader of this faction…"

Cutting Graham off, I respond quickly, "I always knew the chance of you or Edmund, especially, is remote, but I want you there for your experience, your wisdom, to help guide the faction."

"But is it right to keep me in that position and to take Randall's chance to learn a position that he could one day have?" Graham pauses there to let me think.

"He's still number ten," I rebut Graham's argument. "Even without you or Edmund, there are eight other people ahead of him."

"Most of them are your contemporaries. Norton, I believe you have a long life in front of you. You need to be looking at those young enough to be your children as your real heirs. Even if you died today and I tested as the highest IQ, I would turn down the position."

"Why?"

"I'm slowing, down, Norton. I'm too old to run this faction." Graham lets the weariness show in his voice. "I'm starting to contemplate my retirement."

"You aren't that old, Graham," I protest, unwilling to lose my mentor.

Graham says nothing. He just looks at me, like he is willing me to see him through clear eyes and not through the eyes of my past. But that is hard to do. My first memories of my return to Erudite include Graham. He was not just my mentor for initiation, but my mentor in life. He's the one that I have turned to whenever I would have turned to my father, if the world hadn't killed him when it turned upside down. "I'm not losing your experience."

"Create a new title, then."

"A new title?" I repeat back.

"Yes, Top Ten Emeritus. As we age, allow us to step out of the day-to-day operations. We would still attend meetings, still be there for you to consult with. We would not take on any projects, and we would not be considered for the next leader if the current leader dies."

Chewing on the arm of my glasses, I respond thoughtfully, "Let me think about it."

"Ian was here to see you while you were talking to Graham," Glynis reports. "I told him you were in a meeting and asked if he wanted to leave you a message."

"And?"

Glynis huffs and hands me a sealed envelope. "You would think he doesn't trust me not to look. I know my place in this office."

Taking the envelope from her, I force a laugh. "You know your place better than he does. It's probably an invitation from him and Charlotte for dinner, and he's just trying to make himself look important."

That brings a smile to Glynis's face. "He does think he's more important than he is."

"Anything else come up while Graham and I were talking?"

"The initiation mentors have requested a meeting with you, before the final IQ test."

If Graham hadn't given me the heads up, I would have been confused as to why they wanted to meet with me. This close to the end of initiation, they are busy with the final classes and the culmination of the research projects that each initiate works on. "Did they say why?"

Glynis is slow to answer. "No, but they did say it was important and asked if you would be willing to meet them after dinner tomorrow night."

"Tell them I can. I'll let Taryn know when I get home tonight."

Waiting until the door to my office closes behind me, I open Ian's note. It is short and to the point.

 **I am almost there.**

Feeling myself smile, I wonder one thing. How can I push him to test it?

* * *

"We want to give you a heads up," Conroy, the lead mentor, starts when we meet.

"A heads up on what?"

"We've never discussed how you want to handle it when a new initiate scores into the Top Ten."

Charlotte clears her throat. "We never discussed a change to the Top Ten at all."

"Is the Top Ten a living group?" Sage speaks up next, running through the options that I feel the three of them have already discussed. "When a new initiate scores high and people die, will we be adding and losing members, or will we just keep the same people and decrease in number? Will we only add in the new people as we lose people? Will we increase the number of people when someone tests in, or will we kick someone out when there is someone new to add?"

Taking off my glasses, I chew on the arm. "Is this something you feel we are facing this year, or do we have more time to think about it?"

Charlotte laughs at me. "Norton, your son is in this group. Do you really think this is hypothetical?"

My answer is the honest answer, if Graham hadn't already clued me in to the possibility. "I hadn't stopped to think about it."

"You need to be thinking about what you want to do." Conroy's voice is inflexible. "They take the test in less than a week."

"Would you all be able to meet again tomorrow evening?"

"Yes." the three of them respond as one.

"Tomorrow I will let Glynis know to inform everyone else of the meeting. If you see anyone else in the Top Ten between now and then, let them know not just about the meeting but also about the topic,"

The three of them take that as their dismissal and stand.

"One more thing," I say when they are almost to the door. "I would prefer if you didn't mention who the initiate who might be joining the Top Ten is."

"Norton…" Charlotte starts.

"Most people will figure it out, I realize that. But I don't want the fact that we are most likely talking about Anderson to color their decision."

* * *

After they leave, I head out to Millennial Park to meet Ian by the reflective statue of the bean. Beverly is at my house tonight, working on a homework project with Lisette and another friend, Ava. I don't know if Ian knows Charlotte and the rest of the mentors are meeting with me tonight before I meet with him, but I'm confident that Charlotte has no idea that I will be going off to meet her husband after she leaves my office.

Ian wanted to meet me in my office, or at the labs, but I don't want there to be any witnesses to our meeting.

It is possible that the Dauntless cameras might see us together in a vague way, but the statue is too far away from any camera to pick up on our conversation. It is well known with Taryn, Glynis, and the Top Ten that I walk to think, so after Ian is dead, no one will question why I am there. The mentors unknowingly gave me something to think about.

Glynis and a couple of well-placed people know I have been trying to avoid Ian lately, that he has been stalking me in order to get my attention about some project he wants my approval for. If anyone does see the tape of us together after he dies, I have multiple people who will attest that I have been trying to avoid him. There will be no one who thinks I am the one who set it up to meet him there.

Ian grins at me, "I think I have it ready to do a test."

Excitement courses in my veins. Soon, very soon, Ian will only be a memory. "What are you thinking?"

"The two of us are the only ones aware that I'm doing this, right?"

"That's correct," I assure him.

"I'm simulation aware, but you aren't."

Stunned, I realized I have assumed he has been working on making sure no one was aware. If he has designed this to make everyone aware, how am I going to handle this? How will I get rid of him, if I can't get him to take his own test without anyone but us being aware of it?

"What do you think?" Ian's last sentence breaks into my muddled thoughts. I have missed his idea.

"Please repeat it one more time. I want to make sure I didn't miss anything the first time." I don't give him any indication that I actually missed everything he said.

"I propose that each of us, you and me, take the Aptitude Test and then we compare experiences. If I have it worked out the way I have tried, neither of us will be aware that we are in a simulation. I would hate to find out that in fixing the problem, I have created another one."

That will work. I can make sure that Ian takes the test first, and once he does…

There will be no more Ian to worry about.

"I don't want to do this during working hours," I remind him.

"We can do it tomorrow after everyone has left."

Chewing on the arm of my glasses, I think about that. The lab will be empty, and that will work, but there are still the Dauntless cameras. Can I figure out a way to disable them? They are shortest staffed in the late night, early morning hours. "Would you be able to meet me at four am?"

"Charlotte is a light sleeper, but she knows I've been working a lot of hours on a project. She won't question it."

"I'll meet you at the lab, then." I'll need to figure out a way to make Taryn believe I am home, so I'm not missing when Ian dies, but if I fall asleep in my chair she'll leave me there and go to bed without me.

Now all I need to do is figure out what to do about the cameras in the lab…

* * *

"Isn't it warm for a coat?" Ian asks me as I enter the lab.

Facing away from the camera, I pull of my coat and throw it at the camera. It hits the camera the way I planned. Glancing over at it, I hide a smile. It looks like the camera has been knocked completely off. If I am lucky, it is no longer recording. Just to be on the safe side, I lower my voice. "There's a chill in the air this morning."

"Are you ready?" Ian asks me.

"I'm ready. Since we're more concerned with what happens with someone who is aware, I propose you go first." I wrap my hand around the vial of the Erudite serum in my pants pocket.

"That's fine." Ian grabs the electrodes next to the serum and walks over to the reclining chair he has set up for the experiment. "I'll put these on. All you need to do is uncap the serum and give it to me to drink."

With my back to him, I use a tissue to uncap the aptitude serum, which I add to the Erudite serum. It turns the purple serum into a pale lavender. I'm hoping that it is dim enough in the room to keep Ian from noticing the change in color.

I leave the empty vial from the aptitude serum where it can be found. Ian's fingerprints are on that one, after all. I'll take the empty vial that contains both serums with me. I'm not going to leave any evidence that I was here behind to indicate that I was here.

"Okay, Norton, let's do this."

Turning back to Ian, I hand him the vial. "Down the hatch."

Ian takes the vial. He lifts it to his lips.

My heart races. Almost there. I'm about to take my first steps towards protecting the city.

He lowers his hand and my heart stops. "Norton, I do have one question for you, before we start."


	17. Chapter 17

_**(9-20-19)**_

 _ **Sorry this chapter is late. I'm struggling with some parts of this story and sometimes I just need a little extra time to make sure I have it right. Thank you for your** **patience** **.**_

 _ **Characters**_

 _ **Charlotte- Ian's wife, member of Norton's** **initiation** **class.**_

 _ **Taryn- Norton's wife**_

 _ **Ian- (**_ _ **Mentioned) Member of Norton's** **initiation** **class. Confirmed Divergent**_

 _ **Beverly - Charlotte and Ian's daughter, Lisette's best friend**_

 _ **Devon- (Mentioned) member of Top Ten. Was once kicked out of Trivia for cheating.**_

 _ **Glynis- Norton's secretary**_

 _ **Anderson- Norton and Taryn's second son, middle child. He stayed in Erudite and is aware of his father's beliefs about the Divergent**_

 _ **Donovan- (Mentioned) leader of Erudite before Norton**_

 _ **Raymond- (Mentioned) Norton and Taryn's oldest child, he was sent to Dauntless by Norton**_

 _ **Lisette- (Mentioned) Norton and Taryn's only daughter**_

 _ **Alistiar- (Mentioned) Marion's husband, he was the MC of Trivia (Marion was in Norton's initiation class)**_

 _ **Oh! You can thank Not So Cliche, because of our PM's there was a late Read and Review on the last chapter. If you read it, but didn't review and would like Norton's POV on what happened AFTER the last chapter ended, you can either go back and review the last chapter, or leave a** **review** **on this one, and I will send it to you.**_

 **Chapter 17**

"It's not like he was the best husband in the world. He was overbearing and condescending. After he found out I was in the Top Ten and he wasn't, he could be insecure and that caused him to belittle me at home…" I hear Charlotte's voice trail off.

"But he was your husband," Taryn's voice is gentle, "and Beverly's father."

"Taryn, don't make a saint out of him. He wasn't ever that good of a father. His ego never allowed him to put anyone, not even Beverly, above himself. Since the creation of the Top Ten, he plotted and planned and tried to make himself important and…" there is a long pause and then a shuddering breath from Charlotte, "and that's what killed him. Some stupid project that he did without authorization!"

"Ian wouldn't do something that was unauthorized." Taryn's voice is firm.

"He worked under my father," Charlotte's laugh is brittle instead of bright. "Taryn, Father assigns everyone their projects. I asked Father. He didn't assign Ian anything **close** to what he was working on. The project that Ian's notes suggest he was working on doesn't exist for **anyone**. If anyone would have been assigned the project, it would have been Devon."

"Devon?" Taryn sounds a bit mystified that Charlotte would suggest Devon for anything.

"The project was more in line with Devon's specialty, serums, than Ian's general research and development. He was never assigned anything exceptionally complicated."

"And this one was?"

"This one was way beyond anything Father would have ever given Ian."

"Maybe Norton gave him the project directly."

Sometimes Taryn's insight surprises me. I find myself thankful that I'm eavesdropping from the front door and the ladies don't know I'm at home. I'm sure my expression would give away to my wife that she is right, that I was at least aware of what Ian was doing. I must remember to be careful around her.

"No, Norton didn't." Charlotte's voice is bitter. "It's the kind of project that Norton and I designed the Top Ten for."

There is a pause and then Taryn's timid voice asks, "What was he doing?"

Holding my breath through Charlotte's even longer pause, I wait to see if she will tell Taryn, since she is my wife, what she has been told not to tell. The notes Ian left behind on his project were shared with the Top Ten, but all the faction has been told is that Ian has died. The instigating incident wasn't shared with anyone else in the faction.

"Ask Norton." Charlotte's voice is low. "I'm not sure that if I wasn't in the Top Ten I would have been told the full story of how my husband died. I'm actually not confident I know the full story of what caused Ian's death."

* * *

"Norton," Glynis comes in my door as soon as I respond to her knock. "Either you need to go for a walk, or I need to leave and deliver some paperwork."

Confused, I pull off my glasses and look up at her. "Why do either of us need to go anywhere?"

"There is a little phantom who keeps peeking into the window like she is looking for you. I went to the door and tried to get her to come in, but she denies that she is lingering out there for you. But Norton, she's been out there for almost an hour." Glynis's voice almost breaks.

"Beverly?" I guess.

Glynis nods, "She seems so lost these days. I get the feeling that she wants to talk to you, but she knows you are important and doesn't want to interrupt you."

Glancing at my watch, I put my glasses back on and stand up. "I was going to try to leave a little early today, anyway." When I walk into the reception area, I see Beverly glance in the window and quickly move away when she sees us. "Thank you, Glynis. I'll see you tomorrow."

Beverly tries to make it look like she is just walking down the hallway when I see her, but there is no reason for a thirteen-year-old to be walking down my hallway. "Hi, Norton."

"Beverly! It's good to see you! I'm playing hooky, would you be interested in going for a walk with me?"

Beverly doesn't say anything but she smiles and falls in step with me. I realize that I haven't seen her smile recently. Does she miss her father more than I thought she would? We walk in silence until we enter the elevator. Taking out my key, I put it in and turn it so no one will join us on our journey downward.

"How are you and your mother doing?"

"We're doing as good as can be expected." She echoes the phrase Charlotte uses when people ask her that.

"I'm glad to hear that, but it must be hard to lose your father unexpectedly." He had to die; I remind myself. Beverly is better off, safer, without a damaged Divergent living with her and her mother.

Beverly looks indifferent. "He wasn't there much anyway, especially not the last month of his life. He had some special project he seemed to be working on. He left for work early and came back late. Work was always more important to him than Mother and I, at least after he found out that he wasn't in the Top Ten."

The doors to the elevator open while I ponder if I should apologize for that.

"Father just had problems accepting that Mother is smarter than him. When I am deciding who to marry, I'm going to make sure that he's okay with me being smarter than him, or it won't matter how good of a match we are, I won't marry him."

Her face is so serious that I find myself grateful I managed not to laugh when she says this.

But my face must have given some of my humor away. Her chin juts out and she informs me seriously, "I'm more like Mother than Father."

"Yes, you are much more your mother's daughter than your father's." Beverly has no idea how thankful I am for that. The idea that she could be damaged like Ian kept me up more than one night while I was planning how to handle Ian.

* * *

After overhearing Taryn and Charlotte discussing Ian, I find myself asking Anderson, the first time I meet him at the picture he chose after Initiation, "Have you heard any comments about Ian's death?

"Nothing that I would repeat in front of Charlotte or Beverly, but yes, I've heard a few remarks."

"What have you heard?" I ask, hopeful that what he has heard isn't going to involve me.

"That Ian died because of his ego, that what he was working on something that was unapproved, that he went rogue to try to prove he was highly intelligent, and that all he really proved was that his arrogance was unfounded."

"Good. Good." I mutter unthinkingly.

Anderson gives me a look. "He was one of them, wasn't he, Father?"

"One of who?"

"He's one of the damaged people, one of the Divergent." Anderson's face shows his concern.

"What makes you think that?"

"Ian was one of the most self-centered people I have ever met. You told me that Edith Prior was pure and the Divergent were damaged. They have a history of attacking people."

Interrupting Anderson, I point out, "As far as I know, Ian never attacked anyone."

"You never saw the way her looked at you when he thought no one was looking, after you became the leader." Anderson gives a fake shudder. "If looks could have killed you would have been dead within the first month of taking office.

"Ian was pretty sure that when Donovan died, he would probably be the one who became the leader. "

Anderson gives a short laugh. "I wasn't even in Research while he was alive, but I can tell he was assigned the most tedious of projects. He did very little that took a spark of creativity, gut feeling, or the ability to tie far reaching concepts together. There's no way he could have really thought that!"

"Oh, I assure you, Ian was always over confident in his abilities."

"I don't doubt that, but you haven't answered me."

Looking at Anderson, I wonder what his reaction will be. Do I take the chance in telling him? I have to trust him. "Yes, before your initiation, I found out he was Divergent."

Anderson looks at me, like he is trying to decide if he wants to ask me more.

But he doesn't. I give him a full minute of silence to see if he suspects me: if the one person in this Faction who knows about the Divergent suspects me of Ian's death because he was Divergent. Fortunately, he doesn't ask if I had anything to do with it. Instead, he waits for me to move our conversation to what we are here to discuss. "What do you think of the Abnegation girls in your Initiation group?"

"They are still Abnegation. They are quiet and mousy. Neither of them are particularly good looking."

"Well, if you don't like either of them, have you met the Abnegation girl who came last year? I don't think she's seeing anyone."

"I still don't understand why I have to marry any of them! Why don't I get to marry who I want to?" Anderson challenges me. "You didn't have to sacrifice anything for your pet project. Raymond left Erudite, but I think he would have done that anyway. Lisette will do anything you ask her to do. I can't pick my own wife. What have you given up for this vendetta?"

Without thinking, I answer him, "I sacrificed Charlotte and two of my children!"

Of course he focus on what I should never has said out loud. "Charlotte? What do you mean, you sacrificed Charlotte?"

The truth is the last thing I should have told him. He is Taryn's son. I pull my glasses off and answer him with something near the truth. "Back when we were in initiation, I was interested in both your mother and Charlotte." I think back to the moment I almost kissed Charlotte, to the moment that set me firmly on the path that I live today.

"And?"

"Life is full of choices. You can choose to love someone. You can choose to walk away from them. I choose to walk away from Charlotte and to your mother."

Anderson is thoughtful. "What do you think of them?"

"Doesn't it matter more what you think of them? I won't be the one marrying one of them."

"There wasn't much of a chance to get to know either of them during initiation. At least not on any kind of a personal level," he clarifies.

Neither of Emma or Ilene, the females who came from Abnegation, have a job that will have much interaction with Anderson's. I am about to mention Trivia to him, since that is how I met Taryn, but I remember before I do that since he is now in the Top Ten. He's not allowed to play any more than the rest of us.

Thinking back to that time, I remember what Alistair and his friends did since they couldn't play Trivia. They played Geosearch. It would give Anderson a chance to meet the Abnegation girls. As long as they are still playing it, I'm sure I can figure out a way to rig the game so that he is paired with each of them. "I know you can't play Trivia anymore since you are in the Top Ten, but has anyone talked to you about Geosearch?"

* * *

"How are you?" I ask Beverly when she meets me again outside my office about a month after school starts.

"I'm fine, but I'm worried about Mother."

"Why are you worried about your mother?"

Beverly takes a deep breath. "She's not eating much."

"She seemed to eat just fine at the Top Ten gathering last week."

"No, you only think she did. I asked her why she wasn't eating much a couple of weeks ago, and she told me she ate too much shortly before dinner. I've noticed ever since then, she picks messy items to eat, take a little of it, smears it across her plate, and then cleans the plate. The mess she leaves on the plate makes you think she's eaten more than she has."

I make a mental note of both Charlotte's trick and how observant Beverly is. "Loss of appetite is a sign of mourning…"

Beverly snorts at that observation, "Please. He was my father, but even I know Mother wasn't that upset when Father died. They had more of a working marriage than a love match. Father thought Mother would get him the furthest in his career, but I have no idea what she saw in him. She would have been much better off marrying you rather than my father."


	18. Chapter 18

_**(10-18-19)**_

 _ **I've had a couple of people ask me how long this is going to end up being. We're looking at either 3 parts 10 chapters each or 4 parts 10 chapters each. The original plan was 3 parts, but... I have a few things I want to make sure make this story so... it is going to depend on how/if they fit into the last part. Which is what I am currently writing.**_

 _ **Not so Cliché and BK2U caught on that there is something wrong with Charlotte, but you are going to have to wait longer to find out what!**_

 _ **Oh, and if you've read one of my other prequels "The Blackest Shade of Gray"... any name that you might recognize is intentional.**_

 _ **Characters**_

 _ **Taryn- Norton's wife, mother of his three children (Ray in Dauntless, Anderson in Erudite, Lisette hasn't chosen yet.)**_

 _ **Anthony- Marion's son (and if you've read The Blackest Shade of Gray he's Andrew's father.)**_

 _ **Vanessa- (first mention) Patrick's daughter (Patrick and Norton have been friends since initiation.)**_

 _ **Ilene- (Mentioned) Abnegation transfer from Anderson's class.**_

 _ **Charlotte- Norton's friend since initiation. He was interested in her at one point in time.**_

 _ **Ian- (Mentioned) Charlotte's late husband. Norton never liked him, but killed him because he found out Ian was Divergent.**_

 _ **Beverly- (Mentioned) Charlotte and Ian's daughter, Lisette's best friend.**_

 **Chapter** **18**

"She's all wrong for him." Taryn punctuates her statement by slamming onto the table the container she carried the cake for the engagement party.

"Really?" I ask her, bemused. "I always thought there was a good amount of irony in Marion's son dating Patrick's daughter. The fact that they are getting married just..."

"I'm not talking about Anthony and Vanessa," Taryn cuts me off. "Ilene. I'm talking about Ilene. She's all wrong for Anderson."

Motioning to Lisette to go to her room, I lean against the wall with my arms crossed. "What makes you think she is wrong for him?"

"She's too..." Tayrn trails off, trying to gather her arguments. "It's not the fact that she's a transfer. I was pretty sure he would end up with a transfer. He never had any kind of interest, beyond school work, with any of the Erudite girls through the years. I have no problem with the idea that he is dating a transfer, but... there has to be a girl who would be better for him."

"So, why do you think Ilene is wrong for Anderson? I like Ilene."

Taryn snorts. "Really? She's nowhere near as smart as Anderson. She won't challenge him intellectually, and the boy needs a challenge. She **reveres** him. She thinks he is the smartest and only man in this faction, but Anderson doesn't need a woman who will just smile at him adoringly and do whatever he wants. He needs someone who will speak her own mind."

Careful to hide my smile at her words, I pull myself off the wall. I remember hearing someone once saying that men marry woman like their mother. So far it sounds like Taryn is describing herself. Maybe Ilene will work out to be a good match for Anderson.

But one look at my wife's face tells me I should never mention this to her!

* * *

"Charlotte." I say her name quietly, but she still jumps.

She blinks twice and looks around my office, a little dazed. "I'm sorry. I fell asleep on you, didn't I?"

Handing her a cup of coffee, I answer, "I know I'm not the most enthralling person, but I didn't know I was **that** boring."

"You aren't boring." Charlotte blows on the cup before taking a sip. "I'm just tired."

I wait expectantly for her to give me an excuse as to why, but she says nothing.

"Do you want to finish looking over the statistics for Erudite children leaving based on grades and IQ another day?"

Pushing her glasses back up on her nose, she answers, "No, I haven't slept well since Ian died. We might as well do it today as any other day."

* * *

The slamming door jars my attention from the proposal Amity sent me today about the projects they would like to see Erudite work on. Slamming doors were pretty standard around the house when Raymond still lived at home. But when Raymond slammed doors, it was never anger. just over-exuberance. Taryn comes into the family room looking distraught. I put down the report and pat the arm of my chair. Wordlessly, she walks over to me and sits on the edge, leaning into me. "If I'm still sane by her Choosing Ceremony, it will be a miracle."

"What was that about?" I put my arm around her and pull her close. Charlotte warned me when Lisette was about seven that I needed to watch always taking Lisette's side over Taryn's.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure." Taryn looks guilty. "We received a notice that she failed her most recent Faction History test."

"And I didn't know this because…?"

"Because it happened today, and you received the Amity proposal for next year." She looks meaningfully at the report sitting next to me. "I thought I would talk to her, find out the reason, and then let you know what was going on. I asked her, and she told me it was none of my business."

"She told you it was none of your business?" Shocked, I repeat back her words.

"Exactly that. I told her as her mother it **IS** my business and her response- her excuse, because that is exactly what it is- I've never heard her use it before. She told me she's dyslexic and that tests are hard for her and if she isn't good enough the way she is, maybe she should just leave." There is a catch at the end of Taryn's sentence, like she is trying to fight a sob.

Consciously, I pull Taryn into my arms. She lets herself fall into my lap. It's not a place she ends up often, but knowing that I plan on talking her baby into leaving before the next Choosing Ceremony, I hold her close to comfort her ahead of the day we lose Lisette in our daily lives.

"She's never used her dyslexia as an excuse before. She's worked twice as hard as Anderson. She's always studied with Beverly before a test…" Taryn who trails off from what she is saying. She is completely still so long that I am about to move her to check on her. Suddenly she pushes herself off me and looks at me. Her hazel eyes bore into me. "Beverly hasn't been here in about a week, and Lisette hasn't been to Beverly's house in that long, either."

Keeping one arm around Taryn, I reflexively take off my glasses to think. What could have happened to drive a wedge between the two of them?

Glancing at my watch, I notice that I have an hour and a half before I'm supposed to meet with Raymond. It's good timing, enough time to get Lisette home, but not so much time that I can't take her with me to meet him if I want to. "I need to go for a walk and think about a couple of the projects that Amity wants us to do."

Tayrn looks confused at my sudden change in topics. "Now?"

"Yes, now. I wonder if Lisette would like to take a walk with me."

Taryn smiles at me and stands up. "I'm sure if she thinks you are going to bounce ideas off her, she would love to go."

I lean in and kiss Taryn's dimples. "And if we end up talking about why she hasn't seen Beverly lately, there is no harm in that, right?"

"You are a genius," Taryn says as I walk to our daughter's room.

"I know."

"Go away!" Lisette yells when I knock her door.

"You'd better not be talking to me or your mother that way."

The door suddenly flings open. Lisette stands there, shame-faced. "I thought you were Mother."

"And what do you think your mother has done to deserve to be spoken to that way?"

She opens her mouth before seeming to think better of it. She closes her mouth and shakes her head before responding, "Nothing. I'm in a bad mood."

"Sometimes going for a walk helps me clear my head. I have a problem with a report I got from Amity, and I'm going to go for a walk. Do you want to come with me?"

Tilting her head, she thinks for a moment before agreeing. I realize that she's not my little girl any more when we walk out of her room side by side, without her hanging onto my arm. When we see Tayrn, Lisette leaves me and walks over to her mother. She gives her a hug and tells her, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have slammed the door on you. I'm going for a walk with Fa."

Taryn kisses her forehead. "I may go to bed early, so I'll see you both in the morning."

Lisette and I are silent as we walk out of the building. My mind turns with the possibilities of how to start our conversation. It surprises me when Lisette beats me to it. "Beverly says I should leave."

"What does Beverly think you should leave?"

"Erudite." Lisette tucks her hand around my arm and leans into it. "Do you think I should leave, Fa? Do you think I'm not smart enough to stay?"

My heart breaks for my little girl. "Did Beverly tell you that you aren't smart enough to stay?"

After thinking for a minute or two, Lisette admits, "Not exactly. She told me that I'm smart, but that Erudite won't make the accommodations for me that another faction would, and that life might be easier for me if I transferred."

"How long ago did Beverly tell you that?"

"I guess it was last week." Her answer explains why we haven't seen Beverly, and maybe her failed test, too.

Recently, I've been trying to figure out how and when to broach this topic with Lisette. I would love to put it off longer, but thanks to Beverly, I can't. I waited closer to the time of their Choosing to talk to both Raymond and Anderson. Lisette will have to hold on to her secret longer. I start with reassuring my daughter. "You know, I would never want you to leave me."

"And I don't want to leave you!" Lisette burst out, her grip on my arm tightening.

"I don't exactly agree with Beverly. I think there are accommodations that could and would be made for you."

Lisette pulls a little away from me, and beams up at me. My heart breaks. When she was little, I always planned to keep my little girl with me. I meant to send the boys away, but she's more Amity than Anderson, and I **need** someone in Amity.

"It's not because you aren't Erudite that I am going to say this."

We stop walking, and Lisette stares at me. Her green eye- my eyes- look back at me, confused. "Say what?"

"As the leader of Erudite, there are secrets that I keep. Things that I can't tell anyone else. I'm not even able to tell your mother some of these things." Looking steadily into her eyes, I ask her, "Can I trust you? Can I tell you things that no one else knows? Things that you will **never** be able to share with anyone else?"

"You can trust me, Fa."

"There is a world outside our fence, outside of Amity. There is a world out there that we know nothing about."

Lisette shivers. "Is it a very big world?"

"I don't know for sure. I have no way of knowing exactly how big it is, but I've walked enough around our city to realize that once upon a time, it could have held so many more people than it does now. Something happened to those people."

"They left?" Lisette asks.

"They left, or," I watch Lisette for her reaction to my next words, "they were killed."

She looks around at all the empty buildings that surround us like she is seeing them for the first time. Her lips form numbers. Is she counting the buildings, the windows? Is she trying to imagine how many people used to live here? She swallows. "Fa, there could have been so many people here. Half a million? A million? More? What would that have been like?"

"I don't know."

"What happened to them?" Her voice is as small as the empty buildings make me feel tonight.

For once, I feel inadequate. I have no real answer for my girl, just the theories of my adult life. "When I worked at the library, I researched that. I found records that no one else has found in decades. I discovered secrets that no one remembers. These are part of the secrets you are going to have to carry."

Lisette seems to know I'm asking her if she wants to hear all of it or not. She squares her shoulders before answering, "I can. I will."

Looking around, I spot a bench. "Let's go sit down."

"What happened?" Lisette asks again after we are seated.

"What do you know about the founding of our city?"

"Edith Prior and the rest of the architects of our city wanted a place of peace, a place where people would accept each other for who they are. A utopia where people would be judged by who they are on the inside, not what they look like on the outside, or what they believe on the inside. To accomplish this, they looked at what causes people to be cruel to each other. After much searching, they discovered there were five main characteristics of people who are good and just."

"And pure." I interrupt my daughter from her verbatim recitation of the story of the founding of our city that is given every Founder's Day.

Her brow wrinkles. "Pure isn't in the list."

"According to Edith Prior's journal, pure is the heart of it."

"Edith Prior's journal?" There is a spark of interest in her eyes. If only she could stay! If she could stay, I would send her to the library, I would beg those who are still in the Hidden Archive from my days in it, to let my daughter in, to let her see and hold Edith Prior's journal. I would teach her the trick about the black light, so she could read for herself the story that I myself will have to tell her instead.

"Very few people know that Edith Prior's journal still exists. I've seen it. I've held it. I've read it." My mind slips back to the day I discovered the hidden message in it. The day that changed not only my life, but created hers. Without that day, I would have married Charlotte, not Taryn. I look at my precious daughter's face, wondering if she was Charlotte's and my daughter, how much of her would change? Would she have Charlotte's brown slanted eyes, like Beverly does, or would she still have my green eyes? Genetically speaking she would be much more likely to have Charlotte's brown eyes...

"Can I read her journal?" Lisette interrupts my thoughts.

"I wish you could, but it is in a very restricted section of the library." I give a grim laugh. "I don't even have access to it anymore!"

Lisette's eyes grow round. "How can they keep you out?"

"It doesn't matter. Just know that they can."

"So, what does pure have to do with it?" Lisette asks.

"In her journal, Edith Prior talks about there being two type of people. The people like her, who are pure, and the damaged people that she calls Divergent. Evidently, the pure people are the ones who were chosen to live in the utopia, and the Divergent were left on the other side of the fence.

"The Divergent are damaged. They are unable to leave behind their violent ways." I stand up, suddenly realizing the right way to handle this. "Let's walk some more."

Lisette stands, and I lead the way to where the Factionless sector meets Erudite, to the place that I think I watched the Divergent riot as a child. We haven't gotten very far when she asks, "They aren't here, are they?"

How I want to be able to assure my little girl that she is safe! I want to be able to tell her that the world she lives in is secure, and always has been, from the Divergent.

But my childhood and Ian are proof that she isn't.

Lisette notices my hesitation. "They are **here**?"

"Over the years, somehow, some of them have managed to infiltrate our city." We reach the broken part of the city. "No one but me seems to remember this, but when I was four, there was a riot. I stood at one of those windows," I point to the building that would give me the view of my half memories, "and I watched people riot. I watched this intersection get torn apart. I heard a gun. I watched people die."

A sob wrenches itself from Lisette. "Why wouldn't anyone remember this?"

"For years I wondered that myself. When I became the leader of Erudite, I discovered the answer. Each Faction has a serum with a specific purpose to it. One of them makes you forget. I believe that they gave it to everyone. Evidently, when they gave it to me, I didn't take all of it. I have some of my memories, but they come and go in flashes. I'm never completely sure how much of them are real and how much are imagination. Lisette, I have to be able to protect Erudite, to protect our whole city, if they come back again. Are you will to help me do that? Even if it means leaving Erudite?"

Lisette looks around, taking in the damage, before turning and looking at the building I think I was in as a child. "Would you still see me, or would you cut me out of your life like you did to Raymond?"

Looking at my watch, I notice that it is time to go meet Raymond. Maybe if she sees how this works, it will help to put her mind at ease. "I have something to show you. I'll answer your question then."

"Where would I go?" Lisette asks as I lead her towards the building where I will one day meet with her.

"You would go where I came from: Amity."

She stops walking, but I don't. Timing is everything when it comes to meeting Raymond. I can't let Lisette put me off schedule any more than I already am. She runs a couple of steps to catch up. "That building you just showed me is in the city. Amity is outside of the fence."

"That's right. Two of the people killed in the riot I watched were my parents. I was sent to Amity to live with my uncle and his wife."

"The Divergent killed my grandparents?"

"They killed more than just your grandparents. I haven't found a way of figuring out exactly how many people were killed, but I know there were more." The Hidden Archive only lists the Erudite killed, so although I have a good idea of how many our Faction lost, I don't know if the losses were evenly distributed among the Factions.

"Why do you want me to go to Amity? Aren't the Divergent more likely to be outside of the fence?"

"I don't think they are any more likely to be in Amity than any other Faction. If they were, I don't think we would let people transfer out of Amity or let the Amity into the city. And I certainly wouldn't send you somewhere that I didn't think was safe."

She looks reassured, so I continue. "From my childhood, I know there are secrets that Amity keeps. Secrets that no one else knows about."

"How do you **know** this?"

"Being raised in Amity, I was accidentally exposed to a couple of the secrets."

"What kind of secrets?"

"You have to remember, I wasn't a member. I was never intended to see any of what I saw, and it was never explained to me."

"I'll remember that."

Taking a deep breath, I tell her what I know in one sentence. "There are people on the other side of the fence besides Amity, and we have contact with them."

"Who are they?"

"I don't know. I saw the people outside the fence one time at a greenhouse, and another time, I saw a group of Abnegation Leaders being led out to meet them."

We walk for a couple of blocks in silence after this.

"And you want me to find out who these people are."

Looking over at her, I answer honestly, "I would want you to find out that, and anything else that you can find out. I have a feeling that there are even more secrets that Amity has than I am aware of."

"And you would come see me on Visiting Day. You wouldn't abandon me like you did Raymond," She asks as we climb the stairs to the building where I meet Raymond.

Her simple trust is almost too much for me. "I wouldn't ever come see you on Visiting Day, but I wouldn't abandon you any more than I have abandoned Raymond- Ray, as he is called now." I open the door to the building and take her to the staircase inside the main entrance. "Wait here."

Heading back to my meeting area for Raymond, a baby's cry echoes in the empty space. Someone else is here and there is no way of being able to determine where it is. Not wanting to leave Lisette alone if there is someone else here, I back-track to her.

"There's someone else here." Her eyes are wide with fear.

"Let's go up the stairs so I can see who it is."

"Hush little one. It's okay, I'm walking again. Just calm down." Raymond's voice stops me in my tracks.

Lisette's eyes are wide with surprise and excitement. "Raymond!"

Ray picks that moment to come into view. "What are you doing here?" He sees me and laughs, "I thought I was going to surprise you, but here you are, surprising me."

Lisette gets to her brother before I do. He takes the crying baby out of the carrier that he wears and hands it to Lisette, since she is closer. The baby stops crying.

"Who is this?" I ask softly, looking in wonder at what I assume is my first grandchild.

"This is your grandson, Wyatt."


	19. Chapter 19

_**(11/8/2019) Thank you, very much to Bahrfamily for powering through to get this to me. I appreciate it and everything you do in Betaing your story.**_

 _ **We're covering a fair amount of ground in this chapter. Hang on tight!**_

 _ **Characters**_

 _ **Charlotte- Ian's widow, Beverly's mother, Norton's good friend (who he was interested in) ever since initiation.**_

 _ **Taryn- Norton's wife, she was Dauntless born**_

 _ **Beverly- Charlotte's Daughter, Lisette's best friend**_

 _ **Lisette- Norton and Taryn's youngest child and only daughter**_

 _ **Ava- (mentioned) she's actually a character from Dauntless Gray. She was supposed to make more of an appearance in this story, but... she never really showed up like she was supposed to. (I had to throw her in though!)**_

 _ **Patrick- Friend of Norton's from initiation.**_

 _ **Anderson- Norton and Taryn's middle child, he staying in Erudite**_

 _ **Ilene- (mentioned) Abnegation transfer**_

 _ **Raymond- (mentioned) Norton and Taryn's oldest child, he transferred to Dauntless**_

 _ **Ian- (mentioned) From Norton's initiation class, they were both interested in Charlotte. She married Ian after Norton decided on Taryn because of her ties to Dauntless. Norton killed him when he discovered that Ian is Divergent.**_

 _ **Bea and Agatha- (mentioned) mirror twins from Dauntless. They are both in the Top 10 and work in different areas of Tech support. (Bea is married to Patrick)**_

 _ **Glynis- Norton's secretary**_

 **Chapter 19**

"Charlotte!" Taryn's surprised voice carries from the front door. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you. Lisette is at the library with Beverly and Ava, right?"

"Yes, come on in. Norton has paperwork spread out on the kitchen table, but we can..."

"I'd like to include him on this discussion."

Putting down the report I was reading, I look up as the women enter the kitchen. "To what do we owe this honor?"

Charlotte sits in one of the kitchen chairs, twisting her wedding ring around her finger, before she answers. "I saw the doctor last month. I haven't felt like myself since Ian died. At first, I thought it was just my body reacting to the shock and grief, but it's been three years. Seems like I should be over it by now."

Taryn sits next to her. "What did he say?"

Taking a deep breath, Charlotte stares at her ring when she answers. "He sent me to Patrick."

I feel like the breath has been knocked out of me. Patrick wanted to be in a branch of medicine where he could make a difference and save lives. He ended up becoming an oncologist.

Taryn gasps. "What...?"

"I have ovarian cancer." She pauses, "It's stage four."

Trying to push away my emotions, I ask her, "What does that mean?"

"It means that the cancer has already metastasized beyond my reproductive organs. They want me to start treatments right away, but I want to wait until... I want Beverly to choose where she wants to be without feeling like she has to stay here for me. Patrick thinks that with a little help, I can start treatments and still hide it until after the Choosing Ceremony next month. Will you two help me?"

* * *

After the door closes on Anderson and Ilene, I return to the kitchen where Taryn is cleaning up. "You took that well."

Handing me a towel, Taryn glares at me, "What was I supposed to do? Tell them they are both fools? That they will one day regret this?"

Suddenly, I find myself wondering if Taryn does see the similarities between herself and Ilene, and if she regrets marrying me.

My reverie is broken by Taryn's voice and the plate she holds out to me. "Where did you just go?"

"I was just thinking how awful it must be to regret who you marry," I lie with a kiss to her dimple. "I certainly hope you are wrong."

Taryn looks at me for a moment before smiling and kissing me back. "I hope I'm wrong, too, and that they are as happy as we are."

* * *

"She left." Taryn's simple sentence rips at my heart. She sits forlornly on the edge of Lisette's bed, clutching a sapphire blue pillow to her heart.

Crossing the room, I sit next to her, putting my arm around her shoulder. "I know."

"With Raymond, I saw it coming. I watched him grow up. I saw my old faction in his actions. He reminded me so often of people I left behind. It didn't surprise me when he...But I never saw it with Lisette. I knew she would never sleep in her bed again, but I thought, I thought..." Taryn buries her damp face in my shoulder.

"You thought, like Anderson, she'd come over for a meal occasionally. That you would watch her fall in love, see her children..." I feel Taryn nod against me. "I wanted to see all of those things, too. I never wanted to say goodbye to her." I kiss her hair. It's true. I wanted very much to keep my precious Lisette in my daily life, but if nothing else, Ian proved to me that the Divergent are out there, and that sacrificing my daughter to protect the city is the right thing to do.

Taryn abruptly pulls back. "But you **will** see Lisette again."

"On Visiting Day? No."

"Norton! I would have thought after Raymond..."

"Taryn, if I didn't go and see Raymond on Visiting Day when I was simply a member, how can I go see Lisette now that I'm the leader?"

"But you love her..." I hear the unspoken 'more' in Taryn's voice.

"It doesn't matter."

* * *

"She can take my place." Charlotte stays behind after the last Top Ten meeting for this initiate class.

"Who can take your place?" I ask, confused by Charlotte's lack of a subject.

"Beverly. She scored high enough to get into the Top Ten. Rather than asking anyone else if they want to be emeritus, or dropping the bottom person out, she can just take my place when I step down for health reasons."

It's not that I have forgotten Charlotte's cancer diagnosis, it's more the fact that I have chosen to ignore it, to pretend that nothing is wrong with her. That this lethargy that she has had for the last few years will just suddenly leave, and the Charlotte I fell in love with as an initiate will suddenly be back.

"I'm going to tell Beverly tomorrow, after she is officially a member. Once I have done that, Patrick wants to step up my treatments. He started me slower than he wanted to so I would be less likely to have any side effects and make her suspicious."

"It's just a medical leave," I say stubbornly, refusing to contemplate the possibility of a life without Charlotte in it.

Charlotte smiles sadly at me, like she is humoring me. "If my medical leave ends, we'll talk about the options then, but until then, Beverly takes my place."

I look down at the open folder containing the test results. I think of Beverly's comment about wanting to find someone who can accept that she is smarter than him. She's going to have to do that. "Actually, she scored higher than you. She's going to be coming in at number two."

Charlotte smiles proudly. "I know."

It hurts, just a little, to see Beverly in my office for her job assignment. I'm so used to the girls being together that, even though I know Lisette won't be with her, I can't help but look for her. Beverly looks around my office. Despite all the time she spent with my daughter, I'm not sure she's ever been here. "Hi, Norton." She is much more at ease around me than any of the other initiates.

* * *

"Congratulations, Beverly. You've done very well."

Beverly smiles, her slanted eyes crinkling with happiness, just like Charlotte's...

Pushing the thought out of my mind, I remind myself that Charlotte will be fine. She has to be.

"How well?"

"We'll get to that, don't worry. But before we do, I want to ask you a couple of questions about the Aptitude Test." Ever since Beverly decided to stay in Erudite, I've been trying to decide if I was going to ask her this. I feel like I already know the answer, but I have to ask her just to be sure.

"What questions?"

"These questions should be treated like the test itself. You are never to tell anyone that we discussed it."

"Of course not. What questions do you have?"

"There is a possible flaw in the current Aptitude Test. Did you realize the test was a simulation while you were in it?"

Beverly's eyes widen. "Someone could tell it was a simulation? That would be like… cheating, wouldn't it?"

Either she is amazingly good at pretending or else she really is as unaware, as pure as I was betting she was. "I had someone tell me that was a possibility."

"Well, I think they were just trying to cast doubt on the test." She gives half a laugh. "It was probably someone like my father. Someone who was trying to make himself seem more important because he know something you didn't."

I struggle not to react. I can't let her know that it was her father who let me know about the problem. "You are probably onto something there."

She waits for me to go on, but when she realizes I am lost in thought, she interrupts me. "Do you have any other questions, or can I find out what my number is?"

Smiling back at her, I realize that she is not at all suspicious that she has learned more about her father's death; however, she suspects how well she scored. "The next meeting of the Top Ten will be on Friday. You will be excused from whatever training you have at that time to be at the meeting."

"Really?"

Smiling at her excitement, I answer, "Really."

"What's my number?" Beverly practically bounces in her seat.

Opening my mouth to tell her, I change my mind. She's too excited. She needs to learn some patience. "You'll find that out at your first meeting."

"Norton! You don't really intend to make me wait that long! Seriously, where do I rank?"

"You are definitely going to want to find someone who can handle you being smarter than him, when you think about getting married."

There is a hint of Ian in her when she asks excitedly, "I'm number one?"

"No, number two."

"That's higher than I expected. I figured I'd be lower than Mother."

Leaning back in my seat, I pull off my glasses to avoid responding to that. "Your job is going to be both very specific and very general. You will be going into Technical Support."

"Computers?"

"Computers, networking… I want you to be the very best person in this Faction with anything that has to do with a computer."

"Which means I'll be the best person in the city," she says smugly.

Nodding that she is correct, I lean forward. "Agatha and Bea together have been my experts on technology. I think that you, on your own, can do what both of them do. We're going to start with you working on computers with Bea, then we'll move you to networking with Agatha, and then I'll find out who my best programing person is, and I'll put you with them."

"I can do it," Beverly assures me.

Even though she is not my own child, I feel a sense of pride in her. I hand her the computer screen that she has been assigned by IT. "I know you can. You are familiar with the portable computers?"

Taking it reverently, Beverly caresses the screen with her fingertips. "I've gotten on Mother's a couple of times."

Something about the way she says it makes me think that she hasn't always had permission when she's been on it. "Your instructions for this week are on there. Do you have any questions for me?"

She takes a deep breath. "Kwon..."

Shuffling through the papers I will add to my personal collection, I locate the page marked Chin, Kwon. A quick look over the sheet reminds me who he is. He's my highest transfer this year. Not quite in the Top Ten, but nearly. "What about him?"

"Would you… could you mention to him that I'm going to be in the Top Ten and let me know how he responds to it?" Beverly tucks a strand of her straight blue-black hair behind her ear. "He's smart, not as smart as me, but smarter than most of the other guys, and he's cute, but he's quiet, and I'm never completely sure what he's thinking. He invited me to the next lecture at the library on genetics, but before I say yes, I..."

"You want to make sure he's ok with the fact that you are smarter than him."

Beverly's answer is a blush.

"I'll let you know how he responds."

Standing up to go, she lets out a sigh. "Thank you."

Thinking about the conversation Charlotte is going to have with her tonight, I can't stop myself from saying, "You know, if you ever need me, I'm here for you."

"Yes, and you know I'm here for you, too. Lisette made me promise to take care of you."

I stand there, surprised and touched, as the door closes behind her. My phone buzzes before I move again. "Yes?"

"Are you ready for the next one?" Glynis asks.

"Yes, but I want to change the order. Can I see Kwon next?"

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me?" Beverly asks me after a meeting, about a month after she joined the Top Ten.

"It wasn't my secret to tell."

"Fair enough." Beverly pauses. "I tried to talk to Patrick."

"He didn't tell you anything."

"Patient confidentiality." She gives a poor imitation of Patrick.

"Are you asking me? Because I don't know anything either. Your mom and Patrick are pretty closed-mouthed about everything."

"She isn't doing well, Norton."

"I know."

She looks up at the ceiling, trying to hide her tears.

I look down at my papers, shuffling them as loudly as I can, so she knows I'm not looking at her. After giving her a minute to compose herself, I look up and ask the first question I can think of to change the subject to a happier topic. "How are things going with Kwon?"

Her smile, so much like Charlotte's, makes my heart hurt. "We've only been out a few times, but... he seems to be in awe of my intelligence and not threatened by it."

"So, there's a chance?" I prod.

"There's a chance."

* * *

"Lisette!" I hug my daughter when I find her waiting by her artwork. Like her older siblings, Lisette has chosen a very appropriate work of art. Her painting is of a bullseye done in three colors, the red and yellow of Amity and the blue of Erudite.

"Fa!" she hugs me back. "I've missed you."

"What do you think of Amity?"

"I like it. It's not as challenging intellectually as staying would have been, but they are letting me try out a few different areas. I'm not going to be in the fields," she wrinkles her nose at that idea, "Everyone agrees that would be a waste of my talent."

"What are they looking at?"

"Any of the areas that Erudite works with, where they need to be able to train someone on site. With the idea that I would eventually become a supervisor. The other option is they are always looking for people to work with other Factions. That could lead to working with the leadership group. Which would you like me to try for?"

"Working with Erudite could make it easier for us to meet, but working with leadership has a better chance of you getting the information that I need." I think out loud.

Lisette opens her mouth to say something, then closes it. She tries to say something again, but stops again.

"What?" I ask, hoping to prompt her into giving me her thought.

"There's a guy, a couple of years older than me, who seems to be interested in me. He's already working with Charity, the Faction spokeswoman."

It shocks me a little to hear her talk about a young man. I know that Beverly has found someone she is interested in, and Anderson is marrying Ilene in a couple of months, but I hadn't given any thought to the idea of Lisette finding someone yet.

Giving myself some time to think, I look around the room that we are in, but the artwork doesn't interest me nearly as much as the answer to my next question. "What do you think of him?"

The blush in her cheek answers me before Lisette can say anything.

"Never mind." My voice is gruff. "You have my blessing to see if anything comes from it. As long as he is willing to confide in you, having you work with Erudite would be good. The fact that he works with the people in Amity with access to the secrets could work out well."

* * *

"How do you like being a newlywed?" I ask Anderson when we meet up by his picture of the waves to catch up.

He takes a deep breath, and I prepare myself to listen to him complain. "I wouldn't have looked at Ilene if you hadn't told me to pick between the Abnegation girls. She was plain and always in the background, but... she's always prepared to do anything to help me. She anticipates what needs to be done and just does it. And she's not as plain as I thought she was."

Unable to stop myself, I clasp his shoulder. "Sounds like you appreciate your wife's Abnegation points."

"I do, but it's more than that. She's quit wearing her hair up in those buns..." He tries to shrug it off. "Turns out she looks really good in navy."

"I always thought it was a shame your mother couldn't wear green. I think her hazel eyes would have shown off better in green than blue."

"No one wears, green."

"Someone does."

"Who?" Anderson asks.

"People on the outside. It's up to Lisette to find out who."

* * *

"It won't be much longer, Norton." Charlotte takes a deep breath.

"You don't know that! Patrick could still…"

Charlotte interrupts me with a small laugh. "Patrick has done everything he can. It's progressed too far. They are just trying to keep me comfortable now."

"You can't think that, Charlotte." My voice is emphatic. I'm not ready to let her go.

"Norton, I have to be logical. I know the statistics. I don't have much longer." Her voice is resigned.

I can't let her give up like that. I try to encourage her. "Statistics mean nothing to me."

It brings a genuine laugh, the joyful sound I have always associated with her. "But they mean everything to me." There is a long pause. "What time is it?"

I look at my watch, "Three o'clock."

She licks her lips. "Taryn is in class until three thirty, right?"

"That's right." I confirm, wondering why she is checking on this. She must miss her. She's looking forward to seeing her when she comes by after school.

"There's enough time." She turns those intense brown eyes on me. "Norton, I swear, I'll never tell Taryn the answer to this question. I'll never even tell her I asked the question, but I have to know. What happened when we were young?"

There are so many possible answers to that question. "A lot of things happened when we were young. Do you have anything in particular in mind?"

She takes another deep breath, like she is trying to pull the words to form the question in along with the air. "I thought we had something going. I thought we were getting closer I even thought one time that you were going to kiss me, and then suddenly, you were dating Taryn. What happened?"

My heart contracts. She won't tell Taryn. It's not just that she is dying. They are friends, and she would never want to hurt my wife, but how do I explain to her, even after all of these years, that even before I was the leader of Erudite, I put what I thought the faction was going to need above my feelings for her.

"Did I read you wrong?" she sounds mortified by her mistake.

I lean forward and take her hand. "No, Charlotte, you didn't read me wrong."

"Then what?" Her voice trails off.

I look out the window, collecting my thoughts. Then clearing my throat I began. "Do you remember when we started developing the Top Ten, I told you that the fact that I became Erudite's leader didn't surprise me. That because of your father, I knew almost since graduation that there was a very good chance that leading Erudite was my destiny."

Charlotte looks puzzled that I have chosen this time to bring up this piece of ancient history. "That still doesn't explain…" Charlotte trails off when I put a finger on her lips.

I remove my finger from her lips and pull off my glasses. Chewing on the arm, I try to figure out how to tell her what I've learned without giving anything away. "In my job at the library I came across some… lost documents about the founding of our city."

"I never heard about this!" Charlotte sounds excited. "How did I miss that? Surely, they read them at Founder's Day! Was I too involved in Trivia…?"

I speak quickly to keep her from saying more. "I have never mentioned them to anyone before now. When I read those documents, I came to realize that one day we may need Dauntless on our side to protect us all from a threat that no one realizes exists."

"Taryn came from Dauntless," Charlotte says softly as comprehension dawns on her.

"I put the faction ahead of my desire," I admit to her.

"If it wasn't for that?" she holds her breath after she asks.

I have never broken my wedding vows to Taryn. I've never come closer than those times in my mind when I would think about Charlotte to figure out what I should do with Taryn.

But she is dying, and she deserves to know. "I wouldn't be leaving the hospital room where my wife is."

Something like amazement fills Charlotte's face with a radiance all its own. "I was hurt back then, Norton. I loved you then. I love you now."

I close my eyes before leaning forward and kissing the top of her now bald head, wishing I could have done it when it was covered with her beautiful black hair. "I love you, too. I always will."

Ten minutes before we expect Taryn to walk in, I let go of Charlotte's thin hand and move my seat away from Charlotte. She smiles at me understandingly. Even now, this close to the end of Charlotte's life, I won't do anything to make Taryn doubt my faithfulness to her.

Taryn comes in and moves a chair as close to Charlotte as I had been. She rubs her hands together, making sure they are warm before she touches Charlotte's arm.

"How are you?"

Charlotte smiles a ghost of the smile I fell in love with. "Tired."

"Norton and I will leave so you can sleep." Taryn stands and motions for me to get up.

Charlotte's hand flaps her down. "Don't go, not yet. I want to talk to you and Norton."

I'm a bit confused. I've been with her for over an hour and she never mentioned to me that we needed to talk.

"Beverly…" Her voice trails off.

"You know we'll be here for Beverly; you don't even need to ask." Taryn jumps in trying to spare Charlotte her energy.

Charlotte's head rolls from side to side on the pillow. "I have to ask you for more than that."

"Anything." Taryn is stealing all my lines, but after confessing my love to Charlotte, even if Taryn doesn't know it, I feel compelled to let her.

"With Ian and I both gone, if she stays with Kwon, there will be no grandparents." A single tear traces down her cheek, and I understand everything at once. Taryn and I raised our three children with no official grandparent to help out, and in Erudite, that's a big thing. Normally, a grandparent works fewer hours. They are the ones that watch the children after school. They help quiz on school work. They encourage students when parents have to be stern about bad grades. They fill an important gap, and when Charlotte dies, unless Beverly and Kwon break up, there will be no grandparents to help out.

It doesn't surprise me that I feel no guilt that when Charlotte is dead there won't be anyone. I have nothing to do with Charlotte's death, and Ian was a necessary… casualty.

"We'll help her. Just like we will with Anderson's children. There won't be a hole where a grandparent should be," Taryn promises without checking with me.

"Thank you." Charlotte's voice is a low whisper. Playing with the sapphire baguette Ian gave her when they got married, she says a few more words, but all I understand is the last word, "Kwon."

"What did you say?" Taryn asks her. Evidently, she didn't understand what Charlotte said either.

"Can you let me rest until Kwon gets here?"

Taryn stands up and I follow her example. "Certainly." Taryn leans over and hugs her. "I'll come see you after work tomorrow."

Charlotte gives her a ghost of her smile and nods. I take Charlotte's hand. She squeezes hard. "Thank you for talking to me today."

"If I find the time tomorrow, I'll come back."

"You're busy. Don't bother."

* * *

I can't sleep. My conversation with Charlotte echoes in my mind. She would have married me. She would have. If it wasn't for the damaged Divergent, I could have had everything I wanted. I could have had Charlotte.

I'm going to have to be careful in visiting her. I've only been successful at keeping my distance, because I didn't know if she wanted me there.

Now that I know she...

Can you let me rest until Kwon gets here?

That's not what she really said. Kwon was the last word. I didn't call her on it in front of Taryn, but... that's not what she said.

I try every combination of words that I can think of that would have the same meaning and end with Kwon.

I'm not very successful.

Suddenly, I can hear her voice clearer in my memory than it was in life, but I know I am right.

"All that is left is Kwon."

What did she mean by that?

About four, I give up trying to capture any sleep. "Where are you going?" Taryn mumbles at me.

"Go back to sleep. I can't sleep. I'm going to go to work early to see if I can figure out what issue is keeping me awake."

I'll head to work, just as soon as I check on Charlotte.

Patrick is already there. It's like he's standing there waiting for me. "I should have figured you would be the first one to show up. How did you figure it out?"

Not knowing what he is asking, I ask a question of my own. "Figure what out?"

"Why are you here so early?" He changes gears, answering my question with a question.

"Charlotte said something odd last night. I couldn't quite understand her. I couldn't sleep, so I thought I would check and see if she was awake and would explain it to me before I go into work." I put my hand on the doorknob.

Patrick puts his hand on mine. "Norton, it's too late."

"What's too late?" My heart starts pounding, reacting to what I have suddenly realized Patrick is standing here to tell me.

"Norton, I saw you and Charlotte when we were young. At one point in time I thought you two would date." He laughs, " I all but told the two of you I thought you were interested in each other, one night after Taryn and Ian both took off because they were jealous and couldn't handle the way you acted with each other. At the end of the day, I was wrong. It didn't happen, but I know Charlotte is important to you. She made her decision herself. I tried to talk her out of it. I tried to talk her into letting everyone know. I tried talking her into letting at least Beverly know."

I don't let him stop me this time. I open the door, even though I know what I'm about to find.

She lays there so peacefully. Her hands folded on top of each other. Her wedding ring missing.

Her soul gone past any pain.


	20. Chapter 20

_**(12/6/19)**_

 _ **Last chapter of Part 2. If you have a chance, please let me know what you think about the ending. A lot of my dominoes are about to fall into place!**_

 _ **Thank you as always to Bharfamily who got this turned around very quickly... Once I was happy with it!**_

 **Characters-**

 **Beverly- Charlotte's daughter member for Top Ten**

 **Kwon- (Mentioned) as of last chapter, Beverly's boyfriend**

 **Charlotte and Ian (mentioned) both were member's of Norton's initiation class. They were married to each other. Both are deceased.**

 **Taryn- Norton's wife**

 **Marion- friend of Norton and Taryn's**

 **Bea and Agatha- twins, member's of Norton's Top Ten**

 **Salome- member of the Top Ten**

 **Glynis- Norton's secretary**

 **Ray- mentioned Norton's son, Norton sent him to** **Dauntless**

 **Lisette- Norton's daughter, Norton sent her to Amity**

 **Edmond- mentioned, Taryn's diabetes doctor and former member of Top Ten**

 **Charity- mentioned Leader of Amity**

 **Adam- mentioned Lisette's interested in him**

 **Anderson- Norton's son, stayed in Erudite**

 **Ilene- Anderson's wife (she was from Abnegation)**

 **Chapter 20**

Beverly stays in her seat, gathering papers, while the rest of the Top Ten exits the room. I know she is staying behind to talk to me. Normally, talking to Beverly is a bittersweet treat. A piece of her mother, but not the real thing. Today will be all bitter. As soon as the last person leaves, she speaks without looking up. "It's been five years."

Even though I was expecting her to say something like this, it still feels like a blow to my gut. "How are you doing today?"

She twists her wedding ring that Kwon gave her two years ago. The ring that Ian gave to Charlotte, and then Charlotte gave to Kwon the night she died, to hold onto for Beverly. "Better than I was five years ago. I was mad at her then, and hurt and confused, and..."

"You weren't alone in that." I think of Taryn. She blamed herself for months that Charlotte died alone. I'm not sure Taryn has ever forgiven herself that she didn't figure it out in time to at least hold Charlotte's hand if she couldn't talk her out of it.

"Mother touched a lot of lives."

Thinking of her smile and her laugh, I murmur, "I know she touched mine."

We are both silent. I don't know what memories of Charlotte Beverly slips into, but I find myself thinking of the early days, when I first came home to Erudite. The days that Charlotte included me in study groups and meals. When she invited me to be on her Trivia Team and...

"There's part of me that hopes the baby will come early and be born today, and part of me that doesn't want her to be associated with the day her grandmother died." Beverly rub her swelling abdomen, where her baby is making her presence known.

"Will you name her Charlotte?"

"No, I don't want to burden her with having to live up to her grandmother, and Kwon favors a shorter name." She stands gracefully for a woman eight months pregnant. "I've been trying to get up the courage to ask you something all day. If I don't ask you now, I never will. Did Mother say anything to you?"

"About what she planned to do?" I clarify, but continue without waiting for an answer, "No, I figured something was wrong, but I was too late."

"Kwon told me last night, that when Mother gave him her- my- ring, that if we broke up, she was trusting him to give it to you, and that you would get it to the right man. I thought maybe..."

"Kwon knew?" I'm shocked that she would have told him and not one of us.

"No, she told Kwon that with the weight she was losing, she was afraid of something happening to it, and since she wanted me to be able to have it for my wedding ring, she had confidence that he would hold onto it for her. Kwon is very trusting and it never crossed his mind that she had any other motive behind it."

* * *

"I think I'm in the wrong place!" I start to turn around when I see all the women in my living room.

"That's right, Norton," Marion teases. "You really should leave while you can! If you aren't careful, Taryn will try to rope you into being a GRAMS, too."

"Gram?" I ask, puzzled at the thought that my wife would change from Grandmother, to Grams. Grams is what the Amity call their grandmothers.

"Grandmothers Reaching Academic MileStones," Bea answers.

Looking around the room, I start to process who all is here. There is Agatha, whose daughter-in-law is expecting soon.

Bea and Marion, who share an infant grandson, Andrew.

Taryn and I already have one granddaughter, Arianna, who is almost three, and we're expecting a second granddaughter in less then two months.

That leaves Salome as the odd woman out. Her daughter, Sultana, went to Dauntless, and her son got married in the last year.

Fascinated by the possibility of what these women might have planned, I sit down on the nearest chair and ask, "You've intrigued me. What is this?"

"It's your wife's brainchild," Marion starts the explanation. "I was trying to figure out how we can best help out Beverly with her baby. Taryn figured if we all work together; we can help all of our grandchildren, including Beverly's children, better than any one of us can by our self."

"Each of us has our area of specialty." Salome takes over. "As an elementary teacher, I know the teaching strategies for the younger children. I'm also going to be the reading specialist."

"Agatha and I will look for the computer programs that will work best for each age group and subject, and we'll also be responsible for teaching technology to the children." Bea speaks for herself and her twin, like she always does.

"Health and science are going to be my areas." Marion speaks up.

"And that leaves me with math," Taryn finishes. "We're going to start working with Ariana now. She's going to be our trail."

"With the number of grandchildren that we expect to have in the next few years, we think it would be good to start small, but we know we're going to be pretty busy soon!" Bea pipes up.

Looking around the circle again at these women, I find myself amazed at both how good the idea is, and that it is Taryn's idea. My wife is smart, but not brilliant. Of course, the idea is so simple that I wonder why no one set up anything like this before. They are ingenious. Agatha and Bea used to be in my Top Ten, but when they found out about their grandchildren, they each asked to move to emeritus. Salome is still in the Top Ten, but I have a feeling when her son and his bride decide to have children, she will follow their lead. "Salome, you have a new project with the Top Ten. Bea, Agatha, normally emeritus members don't take anything on, but I'm going to ask you both to help Salome with this. I want to see how your little experiment compares with three other groups of children: children with two sets of grandparents in Eurdite, children with one set of grandparents in Eurdite, and children with no grandparents in Erudite. I'd like to know if your little experiment here has merit."

* * *

"Norton." I jump, surprised to hear Glynis's voice through the intercom. Normally she doesn't interrupt me when I'm working on the budget.

"Yes?"

"Marion is here to see you."

"Send her in." Curious as to why she is here to see me, I stand up from my desk and walk toward the door to greet her.

The first thing I notice is the worried look around her eyes. I try to tease her. "I'm working on the budget right now. Have you been sent to ask for more funding?"

If anything, she looks more worried. "No, I will be in a lot of trouble if anyone finds why I am here."

"What's wrong?" I ask as we sit down in the chairs in front of my desk.

"You know that even though I travel to other factions with my job, I'm not supposed to deliver messages between factions," she starts hesitantly

Pulling off my glasses, I wonder about what kind of a message Ray or Lisette thought could be safely sent through Marion.

"I didn't tell you this before because I couldn't, and I shouldn't be telling you this now. However, there is a good chance that you will end up hearing about this, and I would rather you hear it from me than from anyone else once it starts going around the faction."

"Marion, can you stop being quite so cryptic and let me know what you are trying to say?"

"I had to transfer a maternity case from Amity today. A first-time mother went into preterm labor. We're doing everything we can to stop her from having the baby too early, but I'm not sure how long we can stop it."

Bewildered as to why I need to know this, I ask, "Why are you telling me this? Is there a special budget request with this?"

"Norton." Marion gently places a hand on my arm. "It's Lisette. She is pregnant. She's here, and she may lose the baby."

How could she be pregnant and I didn't know it? How long has it been since I've met with her? I think back quickly. The last time we met, she was here bringing food. I went to "inspect" the supplies. She gave me the signal that she had nothing new to report. Anderson ran the next two meetings with all three children, the first because I was sick, and the second because Taryn had an appointment for her diabetes that I needed to be at because she didn't tell her doctor during her last appointment about how high her numbers had been. "How far…"

"Twenty-eight weeks."

I nod dumbly, unable to speak.

"There are people around the hospital who will recognize her. I realize you've never been to Amity to see her, but I wanted you to hear about it from me, not someone else. Right now, she and the baby are fine. She's been moved from my care to Anthony's, since he is an obstetrician, for now, she and the baby are holding their own."

"Thank you for letting me know." I hope Marion misses the tremor in my voice.

She stands up like she is about to leave, and then sits back down, "Norton, I know you were disappointed when she left. Taryn has told me that you haven't seen her or Raymond since they left Erudite. I know you are our faction leader and that Lisette left us, maybe… maybe you should at least try to see her."

* * *

While Taryn and I sit in our apartment after dinner, I find myself unable to concentrate on the work I brought home. Do I tell Taryn? It's not right that she finds if out from someone else, but is it breaking a confidence with Marion if I let her know? And yet, Marion went out of her way to make sure that I know. That thought is enough to make up my mind. "Marion came to see me today."

Taryn doesn't even look up from her grading. "Why did she come to see you?"

"She wanted to warn me about a rumor that I might hear."

"Oh? What's going on?"

"It turns out there is a maternity case from Amity that has been transferred to the Erudite hospital."

My wife is quicker on the uptake than I was. Her head jerks up. "Lisette?"

"Yes."

"Will you..." She trails off, afraid to even ask the question.

" **If** I go, it will be after hours. She'll probably be asleep and not even know that I was there, but I thought you might like to know." I try to keep my voice unemotional to hide the turmoil I feel inside.

"Norton, she's our daughter. No one will fault you if you go check on her."

"She left, Taryn. She knew what she was doing. Faction before blood."

* * *

The hallways are quiet and dimly lit as I walk through the hospital to the maternity floor. Here there is some commotion. Maybe someone is getting ready to have their child soon. I hope it's not Lisette.

When I find her name on the door, I peek inside the doorway. The room is empty besides her. Fortunately, her husband isn't spending the night in the room with her. I quickly slip into the room, hoping that no one has seen me.

She looks so peaceful in her sleep, and I wish I could watch her like I used to when she was a little girl. But if I want to speak to her without anyone knowing, I'm going to have to wake her. "Lisette?"

Her eyes blink open like she was expecting me. "Fa, you came. How did you find out?"

"Marion."

Her smile grows. "I knew she would tell you."

"Why didn't you tell me about the baby?"

"I planned on it, but you missing the last two meetings..."

"I didn't want to."

"I know. How is Mother doing?"

Lisette has enough to worry about with her little one trying to come early, that I don't want to worry her, but I at the same time, I owe her the truth. "Your mother hasn't gotten any better at watching her diet."

"And her numbers are getting worse?"

"Doctor Edmund retired and the new doctor is worried that she is showing early signs of complications." I give her a minute to soak that in before asking, "Where is your husband?"

"He wanted to stay, but I sent him home in case you could come by."

"You didn't tell him that, did you?"

"No, I didn't tell him that. He has a big meeting with Charity tomorrow. There are some leaders from Abnegation coming. He needs to be at that meeting so he can tell me what is going on. Of course, I didn't put it quite that way to him, either," she tells me with a half grin. "Adam is blissfully ignorant that everything of importance that he shares with me is passed on to you."

Smiling at my daughter, I ask the questions I'm afraid to ask. "How about you? How are you and the baby doing?"

She lays a hand over her belly. "The medicine is working, and that is good. But both Marion and Anthony have told me it will work until it doesn't. There's no way of knowing how long we can put it off."

"Your little one will just have to wait until the time is right..."

Lisette stifles a laugh. "Not everyone is part of your faction, Fa. She may not listen to you."

* * *

"Anything new?" I ask Lisette. I come by every three or four days, late at night, to check on how she and the baby are doing.

"The baby is still content to hang out. When Adam was here tonight, he told me that the Amity Patrol is going to be going out tonight with a couple of Abnegation leaders."

Sitting down on the chair drawn near her bed, I verify with her, "Amity Patrol is people from Factionless Patrol who come out to Amity?" These would be the people that I saw with the Abnegation Leaders when I was a child in Amity documenting the phases of the moon.

"That's right. From what Adam has told me, there is almost always someone from Abnegation leadership with them. Sometimes they come right back, and sometimes they are gone for a while. Amity always gives the patrol the Abnegation Serum when they come back."

"So, the Abnegation come back and are allowed to remember what happened, but the Dauntless aren't?" I pull off my glasses and chew on the arm while I think. "Do you know if they ever see anyone who wears green?"

"Green?"

"Yes, specifically people who wear green jumpsuits."

"Not that I know. That will be a hard question to ask. Do I need to find out?"

"If you can. I saw people who wore green jumpsuits once when I was a child in Amity. I don't know who they were, or what they did, but I know they are from outside the fence."

"Do you think they are Divergent?" Lisette shivers when she says the name.

"When I saw them, they were helping us, so I don't think so."

* * *

"Is my baby here?" Arianna checks with Taryn as we walk together to the maternity floor to see Anderson and Ilene's newest little girl.

"Yes," Taryn says with a smile. "We're going to go see your baby sister."

"I read to her." Arianna holds up her favorite book to show she is ready.

"She might sleep be asleep right now, but I'm sure when she is awake, she will love to have you read to her."

"I got a baby sister!" Arianna announces to Marion when she sees her.

"I have a baby sister," Taryn gently corrects her.

"I have a baby sister," Arianna parrots back.

"Your baby sister isn't the only one who is here." Marion walks up to us with dancing blue gray eyes. "We have a patent here from Amity who had a baby girl this morning, too."

Taryn stops in her tracks while Arianna and I walk on without her. "Are they okay?" she asks quietly.

"They are both fine," I hear Marion assure her.

Picking up Arianna to hide my emotions, I wait for Taryn before I open the door to Ilene's room. Taryn's eyes are moist when she catches up. She leans over and hugs me, taking a moment to whisper in my ear, "Two! Two healthy granddaughters in one day!"

In the worry about Lisette's little girl coming early, I haven't stopped to think about the future. Where will I send these girls? Will this little girl be the one I ask Lisette to send to Erudite, or will she be the child to stay in Amity? Will it be Arianna or her new baby sister that I keep here in Erudite, while the other one goes to Abnegation?

Part of me envisions the idea of the girls who are born on the same day being in Erudite together and finding out about their connection.

Ilene holds her new baby close. She has longer hair than Arianna did. I can tell from the couple of dark curls that peak out from under her cap. Her skin is darker, like Ilene's.

Taryn walks up and reaches out her arms for her. "Who do we have here?"

"Meet your newest granddaughter, Evelyn."

 **Bet you didn't see that one coming! Let me know what you think.**


	21. Chapter 21

**(2-14-2020)**

 **I'm sorry I've made you wait so long for the next chapter. 2020 had a rough start for me, both in my personal life and with this story. Hopefully real life and this story are both getting back on track!**

 **There was one consistent comment that I want to take a moment to address from the last chapter.**

 **That would be about Evelyn being Norton's granddaughter and Norton's last name being Johnson. Remember in the Divergent world a couple decides what last name they want to take. They can take the man's, the woman's, or pick their own.**

 **There was a line I accidently removed in an edit, in that line Norton told Anderson that he wanted him to take his wife's last name, not his. He is trying to make sure that his grandchildren can move more seamlessly into another faction without people thinking they are the Erudite leader's grandchildren and might be loyal to him.**

 **So, no, Norton's last name is not Johnson. But he is still Evelyn's grandfather!**

 **Characters**

 **Lisette, Ray and Anderson- Norton and Taryn's children**

 **Adam- (mentioned) Lisette's husband**

 **Taryn- Norton's wife**

 **Charlotte- (mentioned) Friend of Norton and Taryn's she has passed away.**

 **Marion- friend of Norton and Taryn's.**

 **Patrick (mentioned) another friend of Norton and Taryn**

 **Ariana- Anderson's oldest daughter**

 **Devon- (mentioned) rival of Charlotte's**

 **Agatha- (mentioned) Devon's wife, Bea's twin sister, transferred from Abnegation**

 **Bea- Patrick's wife, Agatha's (dominant) twin sister, transferred from Abnegation**

 **Alistair- (mentioned) Marion's husband**

 **Anthony- (mentioned) Marion's son**

 **Vanessa- (mentioned) Anderson's wife, transferred from Abengation**

 **Glynis- Norton's secretary**

 **And the fun part of this chapter... now you get to start seeing canon characters we knew as adults as teenagers!**

 **Part 3 The Hunter**

 **Chapter 21**

Despite the fact I'm five minutes early, Lisette is already waiting for me when I get to the lowest level of the building that I meet my children in. After Lisette went to Amity, I found that it works well to meet with all of them once a month. We meet downstairs in same building where they each have their artwork. The lowest level has what looks like it was once a cafeteria, so there is plenty of room for all of us.

"How are you doing?" I ask her as she stands up to hug me.

"I'm doing well. I have so much to share right now! I hope the boys aren't late!" She practically bounces with excitement.

It strikes me, not for the first time, that Lisette really does fit into Amity. Unlike Ray, who I think would have left for Dauntless even without my encouragement, I don't think Lisette would have considered Amity without my little push, but she is happier there than I was as a child. "How are Adam and the children?"

"No," she shakes her head, "if I start talking about any of them, I'll say too much."

"Now you have my interest peaked."

"Is Lisette trying to make herself important again?" Ray jokes as he enters the room.

Lisette sticks her tongue out at her brother. "I'm not important, but my husband might be!" She quickly claps her hand over her mouth as soon as she realizes what she has said.

"That's intriguing." Ray pulls out a chair from the table we are about to sit at and swings it around so he can straddle it. "Sit down, Sis, and spill."

Lizette sits down, but instead of telling her brother anything, she playfully mimes zipping her lips, locking them, and throwing away the key.

"Father certainly sent each of us to the proper faction," Anderson remarks dryly as he joins us.

Lisette laughs. "I would never have lasted in Dauntless, but I could have made it in Erudite. I would have been content there."

"Content, but not happy." Anderson catches the word that she chooses.

"I wouldn't have met Adam there. I wouldn't have Fiona and Finn."

Deciding not to point out to her that there are different men that she would have met in Erudite, I go back to her earlier comment. "Your brothers are here now. What is going on with Adam and the children?"

"It's Adam." Lisette proudly squares her shoulders. "Charity, the Amity spokesperson, has decided to retire. Adam is on the short list of people being considered as her replacement."

"That's wonderful!" I pull off my glasses, allowing the world to shift out of focus.

Anderson responds next. "As long as he gets the job, that should put you in a very good position to discover new information."

"How do the Amity choose their spokesperson?" Ray responds with an oddly Erudite question.

"The process started two weeks ago when Charity announced her retirement at our monthly meeting. We were all asked to start thinking about who we think would be able to replace her. In two weeks, at our next meeting, people will bring forward their recommendations. They will ask a few people to speak about each person. After they speak, we will break into small groups and discuss it. As each group agrees who they think will be best, we will form larger groups and continue with the discussion until that group comes to a unanimous consensus. The groups keep getting bigger until we are one group. When the entire group agrees... we have a new spokesperson."

Ray gapes at his sister. "That's unrealistic! You really think that will work?"

"It works for everything else. Why wouldn't it work for this?"

"You guys are nuts!" Ray explodes.

"It's just as crazy as choosing someone from a class." Anderson joins them. "Having the smartest person lead you is the most logical. That person is the best-equipped mentally to look at different ideas and select the best one."

Clearing my throat, I put my glasses back on and speak in order to stop my children from starting an outright argument about what their factions do. "If they haven't put forth the names yet, how do you know that Adam has a good chance?"

"Oh, that's easy. I hear everyone talking at work, at meals- really, anywhere and everywhere- around the compound. People stop me and ask me questions about Adam, or check with me to make sure I'm ok with him having the job."

"If there is anything any of us can do to help, let us know." Turning to Anderson, I move to the most pressing issue for today's meeting. "Arianna chooses in two months. We need to decide about what to do with her and Evelyn. I need one of them to stay here in Erudite, and one to go to Abnegation."

"My marrying an Abnegation- even though she is smart enough to belong in Erudite- seems to have diluted our intelligence genes. I don't think that either of the girls is going to make the Top Ten."

"What about the Top Twenty?" I refer to the next tier down that I introduced a few years ago. I created it against the possibility that my grandchildren's IQ wouldn't be enough them to make the Top Ten. The Top Twenty is a group that I call upon at irregular intervals to assist with special projects.

"Both of them would probably make that, but..." Anderson pauses.

"But, what?" I prompt him.

"I think you are asking the wrong question. Both girls will be fine in Erudite. We need to make sure we are choosing the right one to go to Abnegation."

Pulling off my glasses, the world goes fuzzy again while I chew on the arm of my glasses and contemplate what Anderson is saying. "You have a point. With Ray's sons, it was a concern about who would fit the best into Erudite, but this time I need to think about who will fit best into Abnegation. What do you think the characteristics for Abnegation are?"

"They have to be able to put someone else's needs ahead of their own," Lisette responds before Anderson or Ray can.

"Whichever one goes will have to be good at conforming. There is a certain amount of... individuality in Dauntless that is missing in Abnegation." Ray points first to the piercing in his eyebrow and then to his back where there is a tattoo of the Erudite eye peeking out of the Dauntless flames. Years ago, Ray and I designed years ago the tattoo as a visible way for him to prove to someone else that his true allegiance is to Erudite.

"You need someone there who is still able to retain her loyalty. Whichever of my girls goes, she will have to appear to conform to norms and still be willing to feed us information from the council. She will have to fit in without giving away her true devotion," Anderson adds.

"Those are all good points. We will meet one more time before the Choosing Ceremony, but Anderson and I will discuss this again. I think I know who should go where, but I want to observe each of the girls in light of this information."

"Just let me know when you want to meet," Anderson agrees.

Turning to my oldest son, I change the topic. "How are things going in Dauntless?"

Dauntless is my one regret. I don't regret sending Ray there: he is the perfect fit. But the Faction itself has not turned out to be quite as… directable as I thought it would be. I got my hopes up several years ago when Ray was chosen to be part of a leadership class, but since it was discovered at the end of training that I am his father, they chose Lisette's old friend, Ava, instead. Ray has tried feeling out Ava, and although he is sure she will help protect the faction from danger outside of the city, he's not sure she is going to see anyone from inside as being a danger.

"Things are going well. Working in Tech Support continues to give me access to all areas of Dauntless. I'm trying to make sure Wyatt is well placed to be chosen for Leadership when his time comes."

"What do you think that will take?"

"He is in the leadership training program for the Factionless Patrol. We have five leaders and typically, three of the five were in the leadership of the Patrol before they were chosen for leadership. I'm trying to figure out who he should marry. There are a couple of very influential families that, if he had ties to them, he would almost be guaranteed to be chosen."

"Do any of them have daughters?"

"Each of the Pedrad families have a daughter. The one closest in age to Wyatt went to Amity. The other one… she is younger, but she has been practically engaged since she could walk. I don't think she's going to be an option."

"Any other families?"

"There are. None of them are as influential as the Pedrads are, but there are one or two more that have daughters the right age."

"Keep me informed of what you decide. Is there anything else I need to know from Dauntless?"

"I'll have Steven get his tattoo in the next couple of months. When I do that, I'll have to let him know what is going on."

"That's fine. I'd like to meet with my younger grandson sometime after that, so that I can discuss his move to Erudite."

"We'll set that up."

"Lisette, is there anything else in Amity?"

"We had more people in the jumpsuits last week. I'm sticking with the theory we developed over the years. The ones in blue are definitely in charge. They have to be the equivalent of Erudite outside of the fence, but I'm starting to think that maybe green isn't the equivalent of Amity."

"Just because the color doesn't match?" Anderson scoffs.

"No. Because they do the grunt work. They do whatever the Erudite tell them to do. I'm thinking they match up with the Factionless."

I contemplate her idea. Trying to think back through the years about the one time I saw them. The ones in green were the ones doing the physical work. "That is a valid hypothesis. Hopefully Adam will become the spokesperson and you can find out for sure."

She continues on. "Another group of Abnegation leaders went to the outside world three days ago. They haven't returned yet."

"Did anyone from Amity or their patrol from Dauntless stay with them?" I ask.

"No. Like always, the Dauntless guards- the 'Amity Patrol' as they call them- crossed over with them and came back. They are always housed separately. No one except for Amity leadership sees them. They don't live or eat with us. I heard Adam tell his friend, Jarrod, that the leaders are supposed to come back tomorrow night, and they need to have the Abnegation serum ready. I still find that puzzling. It's called the Abnegation serum, but they always give it to the Dauntless who cross with the Abnegation, and only rarely to the Abnegation."

I puzzle over that as well. Abnegation serum makes you forget things. They don't want the people who travel as guards to remember what they have done, but they are willing for the people who actually see what happens in the outside world to remember what they see.

* * *

"Happy birthday, George," I tell him when I arrive a little late to Beverly's son's birthday party because of my meeting with the children.

"Thank you, Norton." George's older sister, Tori, nudges him, and he continues, "And thank you for the chemistry set."

"Can I get you a drink or a piece of cake? Taryn made the cake," Tori asks in her role as hostess. She looks subtly past me to see if Beverly came with me.

If she isn't already here, Beverly probably won't make it. Since I came straight from my meeting with my children, I didn't get a chance to remind Beverly about her son's party today. "My wife always makes good cake. I'll take a slice of it, thank you."

Tori walks away to get the promised piece of cake, and hopefully a drink to go with the rich cake.

"Mother isn't going to make it, is she." George states is very matter-of-factly for a nine-year-old.

"I didn't come from the office, so I don't know for sure."

"She won't. Tori is going to be mad. Mother promised that she would be here."

"Maybe she will just be late."

George gives me a weak smile. I know it isn't his real smile, since his real smile reminds me of Charlotte, his grandmother. "It's okay if she doesn't. When she realizes that she missed it, she will want to make up for it. I bet she gets me extra chemicals for my new chemistry set."

"Here you go, Norton." Tori hands me the promised cake and a bottle of fizzy drink.

Taking them from her, I tell her, "Thank you. I think I'll go join Taryn."

"Be careful." Tori warns. "I think they are having a GRAMS meeting during the party. I heard Marion saying something about a study group for our botany summer school class."

"Thank you for the warning." I look around, hoping Patrick came with Marion. Instead, I see Evelyn sitting by herself. "Maybe I should go join my granddaughter instead."

"I would!"

"Is anyone sitting here?" I ask Evelyn.

She looks up from the cake she is eating. "No, Grandfather. Have a seat."

"Thank you." Once I am sitting next to her, I ask, "What are you doing here? I didn't expect you to be at George's party."

"Grandmother asked Arianna and me to come with her so Tori would have someone to talk to, but since Tori's mother isn't here, I've just kind of been sitting here while she helps her father with the party."

Looking around the room, I ask, "Where is Arianna?"

"She has a test in Faction History on Monday, so she's home studying. At least that is what she says," Evelyn mumbles the last part.

"You don't believe your sister?"

Evelyn snorts a laugh. "She has a one hundred and ten percent in the class. She didn't want to come, so said she needed to study. She is at home reading a book, but it may or may not have anything to do with Faction History."

"What about you?"

"I have a test in Algebra, but when I tried to say something about that Grandmother said she would help me study after the party and that it would mean a lot for me to come. So even though I have the Algebra review sheet that I could be working on while Grandmother is here..." Evelyn shrugs. "Here I am."

Deciding this is a good moment to see if I'm on the right track, I mention, "Maybe when you finish with your cake, you can help Tori."

Obediently, Evelyn takes the last bite of her cake and stands up. Without a word, she takes her plate to the kitchen.

* * *

"You are dense!" Jeanine, Devon and Agatha's oldest granddaughter, exclaims as I enter the door to our apartment.

"Jeanine!" Agatha or Bea's voice exclaims from the kitchen. Even though I have never learned how to tell their voices apart, I'm actually betting it is Bea's. Agatha barely ever speaks up against her headstrong granddaughter.

"Well, Aunt Bea, she is! Most serums are used for healing purposes. There are only five serums that..."

"Jeanine." Bea cuts off her niece.

Looking through the kitchen door way, I am just in time to see Jeanine twist her hair around her fingers while she glares at her aunt. Andrew, the son of Marion's son and Bea's daughter, leans towards Evelyn. "The way to remember the serums that aren't for healing is that there are five factions and five serums, one for each faction. Every other serum has a medicinal property to them." Andrew pulls a sheet of paper towards him and starts writing.

Tori leans forward so she can see what Andrew is showing Evelyn.

"Arianna and Jeanine, while they work on sorting out serums, why don't the two of you see if you can work out the properties that are needed for a patient with early kidney failure." Marion glances at Taryn for her agreement, instead of at the girls, as she assigns them their project.

Studying the group critically, I realize that sometime soon, I'm going to need to figure out where all of these children belong. At least in GRAMS, Jeanine is working with someone who is three years older than her. Maybe this summer for her internship, I should have her work with her grandfather, Devon, and my son, Anderson, in serums. It could be interesting to see how she does there.

Marion has said that Andrew seems to have a knack for medicine, and with his family tree, that makes sense. Marion, his paternal grandmother, is a midwife, while Alistair, his paternal grandfather, is a medical researcher. Anthony, his father, is an obstetrician. Patrick, his maternal grandfather, is an oncologist, and Vanessa, his mother, is in general practice. Only Bea, his maternal grandmother, isn't in the medical field. Maybe I should set up a medical internship for him this summer.

Tori situates herself so she can see what Andrew is showing Evelyn, creating something on her screen at the same time. Technology. Maybe she should be with Beverly to see if it helps their relationship.

Whichever of my granddaughters stays, I will put in the medical field, but even if I keep Arianna at the next Choosing Ceremony, I think I'll put Evelyn in a medical internship this summer. Medical professionals help people much like they do in Abnegation. It could be a good training ground for...

"Taryn!" Bea cries out.

Looking over at my wife, I see her weave just a little on her feet. "Grandmother!" Evelyn is out of her chair and holding her grandmother, trying to steady her.

Marion grabs the chair Evelyn was sitting on and pushes it under Taryn. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just tired and I got up too fast." Taryn pulls off her glasses and rubs her eyes.

"You need to go see the doctor," Marion tells her firmly.

"I'm fine."

* * *

"Ariana to stay in Erudite and Evelyn to go to Abnegation. What do you think?" I ask Anderson when we meet at his picture a week later.

"Evelyn is generally more compliant, and Arianna is slightly more intelligent, so I think you are right."

"Why didn't you just say something?"

"You've always liked the idea of Fiona and Evelyn ending up in the same faction."

"Well, that's not going to happen, is it."

Anderson smiles at me. "No, I don't think it is going to. Do you want me to talk to Arianna, or do you want to?"

Out of necessity, Ray had been the one to talk to Wyatt about his history before I met my grandson for the first time, but I did talk to Wyatt about what I wanted from him before his Choosing Day. I hadn't thought about what I would do with the grandchildren I already know. "Bring Arianna here. We'll talk to her about it together. I'll let you do most of the talking and I'll answer any questions that she has. Then we'll let her pick out her own piece of art work."

* * *

"Walk with me." Anderson comes no further into my office than the door.

Answering without looking up, I tell him, "Now isn't a good time, Anderson."

He steps in and closes the door behind him. " **Fa,** you **need** to go for a walk with me."

My head snaps up. Lisette is the only child who ever called me Fa. I mouth her name. "Lisette?"

He nods.

Closing the folder that I am working on, I stand up and leave my office with Anderson. "Glynis, please let the rest of my appointments know that I may be unavailable the rest of the day. I'll be back in as soon as I can, but tentatively reschedule everything."

Glynis hesitates to see if I give her more information before answering, "Yes, Norton."

Walking purposefully to the elevator, I twist my key into the lock to give us a non-stop ride down to the bottom. Anderson opens his mouth. I put a hand on his arm to keep him from speaking, then look up intentionally to the camera perched in the corner. Years ago, I tried to argue against having cameras in the elevators, but since they are not for my private use, and something could happen in them, I lost that battle.

Anderson leads the way, although it doesn't take me long to realize that we are headed to our meeting building. Once we arrive in an area where there isn't much coverage, he talks quietly. "She showed up today at my office. We were expecting a delivery of bees' wax in three days, but she showed up with it today." He stops walking, causing me to stop, too, and look at him. "She looks... awful. She's been crying. She's upset about something. She handed me this."

After I take the note from Anderson, we start walking again. My pace speeds up as I read her words. **You know where. Now.**

I hesitate for only a moment when we are in the building. She could be in two different places. She could be by her picture, or she could be where we all meet. Lisette gave the note to Anderson. Assuming that she would want to make sure he could find her if I couldn't come, I head to the group meeting room and not to her painting where he wouldn't be able to find her.

When we get down there, we find her huddled on the floor, clutching her legs, her face buried in her lap. I kneel on the dusty floor, mindless of the marks it will leave on my navy suit. My arms go around her, drawing her close. "Lisette, what's wrong?"

Her face is marked with tears. Her eyes are terrorized. Her voice is rough and fearful. "He's one of them, Fa. He's one of them!"

"Who? What?" I stroke her hair to try to calm her down.

She leans into me and sobs. "Adam. He's one of them. He's Divergent."


	22. Chapter 22

_**(3/6/2020)**_

 _ **Sorry! I promise I'm trying to get better about updating again. There are several chapter's written and edited so... the next few posts should be better. I just need to chose between two places to end the story to make sure I finish it right, and I can't write more until I make the decision.**_

 _ **Thank you as always to Bahrfamily. I** **appreciate both** **your help on this story and your encouragement in real life.**_

 _ **I know everyone is concerned about Adam, so I won't make you wait any longer to find out his fate!**_

 **Characters (** _ **BK2U mentioned that it is hard to keep up with who the cannon "kids" are related to, so in the reminder of the characters will note anyone they are related to who comes up. Hope that helps. (And remember the "kids" in this story are the parents in Divergent.)**_

 **Anderson- Norton and Taryn's middle child, he stayed in Erudite. Evelyn's father making him Andrew's grandfather**

 **Lisette- Norton's youngest child and only daughter, she went to Amity**

 **Adam- (Mentioned) Lisette's husband. She recently discovered he was Divergent**

 **Ian- (Mentioned) Charlotte's husband, Norton killed him when he found out he was Divergent. Tori and George's grandfather**

 **Beverly- (Mentioned) Ian and Charlotte's only child. Making her Tori and Geroge's mother.**

 **Ray- Norton's oldest child, he went to Dauntless**

 **Taryn- Norton's wife**

 **Marion and Alistair- Marion was a friend from initation. Alistair is her husband. They are Andrew's grandparents.**

 **Chapter 22**

Anderson responds more quickly than I do, "How do you know this?"

Lisette's response is more tears.

"Lisette." He too, gets down on the floor so he is at her level. "You have to pull yourself together. We need your answers to our questions, so we know what to do. How do you know he's Divergent? Could you be mistaken?"

Lisette is so still, that for a minute, I fear that she has shut down completely on us. However, as she pulls herself into a sitting position where she isn't leaning on me, I realize she is doing exactly what Anderson told her to do. She's pulling herself together. "No, I'm not mistaken. We were talking about the Aptitude Test. I asked him what he thought the chances were of either of our girls going back to Erudite since I came from there."

"Lisette!" Anderson chides her.

"What? Amity is different than Erudite. I thought maybe if we had a discussion about the possibility that one of the girls might leave, he wouldn't question it when it happens."

"What happened when you asked that?" I ask her.

"He laughed and told me that, since you know the choices you are making during the test, he didn't see that happening. I was stunned into silence. At first, I thought I had misheard him. When I realized I hadn't, I worked really hard to stay calm and asked him to explain himself. He was aware, Fa." She looks at me, wild-eyed. "He knew what was going on. He was aware that it wasn't real. What do I do, Fa? I'm living with one of them. My children!"

Drawing her into my arms, I look over at Anderson, the only other person aware of Ian's Divergence. He must read my look because he gives a quick dip of his head to encourage me to tell her.

"Lisette, it's okay. We'll take care of it. He won't hurt you, or the children," I promise.

"What if they are Divergent like their father?" The desperation in her voice tears at me.

"They are **your** children. Your purity is stronger than his Divergence." I assure her.

"How do you know that?"

"Ian was Divergent." Anderson answers for me.

Lisette's head pops up to look at her brother. "Ian, Beverly's father, was Divergent?"

"Ian," I confirm. "Beverly is as pure as Charlotte. I checked with her before she started on the Top Ten. It will be okay, Lisette. We'll take care of Adam. You and the children will be safe."

She takes a deep breath that hitches on the way in. "How did I fall in love with someone like that?"

Thinking of Edith Prior's letter where she talked about the man she loved, I tell Lisette, "They are deceivers. They learn to blend in so that we accept them."

"So, what are we going to do?"

Anderson answers her question before I can. "You are going to go back to Amity and pretend that nothing has changed."

"I can't..."

"You have to," Anderson tells her.

"When is Amity supposed to meet about the new leader?" I begin thinking through the logistics.

"Monday."

"That doesn't give us much time. We have to move before that meeting. If he becomes the spokesperson before something happens to him, there will be more of an investigation when we move." My mind strives to solve the dilemma that is in front of us. "Ray taught you how to disable a camera to let him know you have a message, right?"

"Yes."

"Tomorrow, disable it. Ray will give you your part of the plan then."

"Why can't I be part of the planning now?"

"We can't do the planning now. We're going to need Ray."

"I can stay and help you plan," she begs.

"No, you can't. You have to go back to Amity on time. You have the biggest, most important part of plam." I tell her.

"What is that?"

"Like Anderson told you, you have to go home and pretend everything is normal."

"Fa!"

"Lisette, you have been married to him for over sixteen years. He hasn't done anything in all of this time. He isn't going to do anything now, as long as you don't let on that you know anything," Anderson assures her.

"Lisette, do you really think I would let you go back if I thought you or your children were in danger?" I ask.

Lisette wipes her eyes and looks up at me. "No."

"Trust us on this. We'll meet with Ray tonight, and Ray will give you what you need to know about the plan tomorrow."

"How could I fall in love with him, Fa? No wonder you didn't want me to stay in Erudite. I'm too stupid to even be able to tell if someone is pure or not."

"Lisette, I am the smartest person in the city, and Ian fooled me. They are masters of this. You are not to blame. I'm just glad you found out so we can take care of him before he can actually do something."

* * *

Ray takes a deep breath before responding to the information we've given him. "Okay, so we have three days to figure out how to kill Adam and make it look like an accident."

"No, we have two days to plan and execute that plan. Monday is too late." Anderson corrects him.

"And Lisette is counting on Ray telling her the plan tomorrow," I remind them both.

"One day to plan, one day to execute, one day as a back-up." Ray claps his hands, "Let's get busy. Ian died during a simulation. How did you pull that off?"

"Erudite death serum. There are tight controls on it. It took me almost a month to get the key ingredients. With my new lab on the top floor, I now have a stash of all of them, but it won't work with Adam."

"Why not?" Ray asks.

"Anyone who dies outside of the hospital, and even some people who die in the hospital, has to have an autopsy. Thanks to the serum Ian was making without any official sanction... It wasn't a red flag when they did an autopsy and found the chemicals that killed him. But if they show up in Adam's blood..."

"That would be hard to explain," Anderson finishes for me.

"Ok, that's true," Ray concedes. "I'm sure you had other plans for Ian's death. What other plans did you have for Ian's demise?"

"There were problems with all of those plans. That's why I discarded them," I say.

"But that doesn't mean we can't use them as a starting point." Ray points out.

"And what doesn't work in one faction, might work in another," Anderson adds.

"I kept trying to look for an accident, but the cameras are there, watching, no matter what faction someone is in."

Ray smiles at me. "Yes, but now you have a child who is in technical support, and cameras aren't the same concern they were before."

Smiling back, I think, not for the first time, that Ray being invited to become a member of technical support was the best thing that has happened to further our coterie. "So, if we plan to 'create' an accident..."

"I can cover it," Ray says assuredly.

* * *

"Norton!" Taryn's round face smiles when she sees me. "it was getting so late, I thought I would have to leave a note for you."

Kissing her dimple, I ask, "What kind of a note?"

"She's going to have to take us home soon." Evelyn sits at the table with Jeanine, Tori and Andrew.

"What are you doing here?"

"We have a math test tomorrow," Jeanine answers for them.

Evelyn makes a face like she swallowed something sour, before quickly replacing it with a bland expression. I find it interesting that, like so many Abnegation, she's hiding her feelings- not quite as well as they do, but it's a start.

"Are you ready for it?"

Jeanine answers first "I know **I** will ace it, and Andrew will do well."

This time both Tori and Evelyn bristle at her response.

Taryn must have also noticed the other girls' reactions, because she says diplomatically. "They are all doing very well on their review work. I think all of them will do well and get A's on it."

"I'm glad to hear that Erudite's future is in good hands."

"Let me put on my shoes, and I'll walk you home," Taryn offers.

Following Taryn out of the room, I intend to ask her if she thinks we can cancel our dinner plans with Marion and Alistair tonight, since I would like to have some time to think about the plan the boys and I came up with, to make sure I haven't missed anything. I am surprised when I see her feet. They look too big to fit in her shoes, "Taryn, why don't I take them home? I have been busy at work recently and haven't gotten to see much of Evelyn."

"Would you?" Taryn lets her shoe fall from her hand. "I would appreciate it. I still need to get the cake made to take to Marion's."

"No problem." I lean in and kiss her dimple. And I'm not going to cancel on Marion in order to think through any problems with our plan. I need to see what she thinks of Taryn's feet.

Andrew is the first one we drop off, followed by Jeanine.

"She is such a know it all!" Tori explodes as soon as the elevator doors close from dropping off Jeanine.

"'Taryn, the answer is the square root of two hundred eighty. Which **everyone** know is sixteen and seven hundred thirty-two thousandths, when rounded to the thousandths place.'" Evelyn mimics in a haughty voice.

"Thirty-three," Tori mumbles.

"What?"

"Not that it matters, but it is seven hundred thirty-three hundredths, not thirty-two," Tori states matter-of-factly.

"You aren't going to..." Evelyn starts, but Tori stop her.

"No, but you know my mother. 'Accuracy is important.'"

"It depends on what the job is as to exactly how important the accuracy is, right Grandfather?"

"In Erudite, most jobs require accuracy. Doctors, scientists, teachers… all need to be accurate in what they do. You wouldn't want to have a doctor who gave you the wrong amount of serum because they weren't accurate with your prescription."

"Or the scientist who makes the serum to miscalculate the ingredients." Tori chimes in, following my logic.

"You've got it, Tori."

Evelyn looks at me expectantly. "Or the teacher not to correct you so you don't learn."

"I think both of you girls understand what I'm saying."

Evelyn looks disappointed that I didn't single her out. I notice again that she is a people pleaser. This can help me when it's time to send her away.

* * *

When Taryn excuses herself to go the restroom, I take my opportunity to talk to Marion. "Marion, is there anything wrong with Taryn?"

She glances over at Alistair before she answers me. "Do you have anything in mind?"

"Her face looks rounder and her feet are swollen. I thought maybe she is having a problems with blood sugars again."

Marion takes a deep breath. "Norton, I'm a midwife. I can tell you that I'm pretty confident that your wife isn't pregnant. Anything more than that is beyond my medical training. I really shouldn't speculate."

When the world goes out of focus, I realize I am chewing on the arm of my glasses. This doesn't make sense to me. Marion was the one to tell me she thought Taryn's gestational diabetes didn't go away. She's made medical guesses about my wife before. Why won't she do that now?

And then it clicks. I put my glasses back on and ask her directly. "You've given me hints to look at things before. There is something going on, and she's told you not to tell me."

There is a flash of something, possibility irritation, in Marion blue gray eyes before she answers me. "Maybe if you go her next doctor's appointment, on Wednesday, you will get a chance to find out what is going on."

* * *

When Taryn's even breathing tells me that she is asleep, I start to let myself start to think of the consequences of the last few days. If Ray has done his job, Lisette should be a widow by now. The "accident" in the apple orchard should have happened at sunset.

Lisette cared for him. She loved him in the way I loved Charlotte. I have to wonder how well she is handling this. There has to be away for me to check on her. Maybe some project in Amity that I can check on or… Monday they are supposed to get a new leader. Maybe, if I go to meet whoever that is on Tuesday, it will give me an excuse to at least see her. That will have to do until I can meet with her again.

Adam, Ian… how many more are out there? Before Ian, I thought the Divergent were all on the other side of the fence. I thought Ian was a fluke, but now with Adam...

They are here. They are in our city, biding their time.

I have to get rid of them. But to do that, I have to find them.

How do I find them?

And when I find them, how do I get rid of them?

 _ **There is a read and review for this chapter. It's from Ray's POV. If you've read The Blackest Shade of Gray, I promise you will find this** **interesting** **. I will warn you it will be probably be Monday before I send it out. I have a busy couple of days coming up.**_


	23. Chapter 23

_**(3/21/2020)**_

 _ **For a writer to say, I have no ideas what to write... tells you the world has indeed turned a bit upside down!**_

 _ **Practice social distancing, stay safe, watch out for one another, stay inside and read more Fanfiction, (and review what you read so the writers stay motivated to write! ;) )**_

 _ **Two points from two reviews...**_

 _ **NotSoCliche mentioned seeing Tori, Evelyn, and Jeanine interact. You are going to see more of that. They all came from Erudite (canon) and there just felt like there was a bit more going on than just the war to me. So, in future chapters you are going to see a bit more of that.**_

 _ **Shori:d mentioned that what was planned for Adam made her think of Eli. Yes, there is a reason for that!**_

 **Characters**

 **Glynis- (mentioned) Norton's secretary**

 **Lisette- (mentioned) Norton's daughter**

 **Charlotte- (mentioned) Norton's "crush" she died of cancer and was married to Ian**

 **Adam- (mentioned) Lisette's husband**

 **Anderson- Norton's middle child**

 **Ian- (menioned) Norton's rival for Charlotte, first Divergent he killed.**

 **Taryn- Norton's wife. He only married her because she came from Dauntless**

 **Devon- (mentioned) intellectual rival of Norton and Jeanine's grandfather**

 **Patrick- (mentioned) friend of Norton's and Andrew's grandfather**

 **Chapter 23**

It is hard to keep to my routine this morning. I **don't** want to meet with Glynis first thing to review my day. I want to skip my morning review of the faction and what is going on with it, but I can't do that, either.

What I want to do, the **only** thing I want to do, is go up to my private work space on the top floor, and pull up the records of births and deaths since Friday. I want to open up my handwritten notebooks, the ones that I have kept since I became the leader, and transfer the names from the records Glynis will give me to my private ones, so I can see if Adam's name is there.

So I can know that my little girl, and my city, are safe from him.

After I finish the minutia that starts my day, I move the bookcase aside that hides my personal elevator. I managed to get it put in when I created my private work area on the top floor. It took me a couple of years after Ian died to get my private space, a space where there are no cameras. An area that no one, not even Dauntless, monitors.

There is a more public entrance where there are more stringent security measures in place. I put my thumb to the pad to let it read my thumb print. As soon as it registers, I hear Charlotte's voice ask,

"Where do you want to go?"

"To heaven," I reply.

The elevator starts moving up. It takes my thumb print to activate the elevator, my voice to give the command, and the password for the elevator to even move. If I give the wrong password, like the floor number that my work space is located on, the elevator will go up about 6 inches and "break."

As I ride up, I'm thankful that I have always made sure that morning meetings don't take place until my paperwork is done.

Everything I need is up here. Computers that aren't tied to the network. Chemicals for the death serum that I don't have to account for. There are still things that I am slowly acquiring for my personal use, but my work space is complete, and the lab has almost everything Anderson needs for any private work he does up here.

Most importantly, nothing that we do up here is recorded.

The first thing that I moved up here is my notebooks where I record births, choosing ceremonies, and deaths. These are my personal copies to make sure that if history is ever tampered with again, I will have proof of who should be accounted for and where they belonged.

Booting up my computer, I pull the drive out of my pocket that Glynis updated and gave to me in our morning meeting. It contains the records that I copy every morning of the births and deaths that have occurred since I because leader. But it can be tampered with, so the written copy is necessary, too.

Even though there is no one here to see what I am doing, I force myself to continue to follow the habits I have built over the years. There will be no evidence I vary in my routine. I record the births first, since that is what I have always done. If I allow myself to slip up in private, it will open the door for me to make a mistake in public.

Births before deaths. I copy each one meticulously in my book.

Before I open up the list of deaths, I close my eyes, drawing strength to see what I hope to see. I scan the short list, looking for his name. Of course, even if he is dead, he may not be on today's list. It will depend on when they found his body.

Adam.

Letting go of the breath I've been holding, I start the actual process of recording.

He died of a broken neck, falling out of a tree.

Looking over the coroner's notes, I think about how it will look to anyone else reading the report.

He told his wife he wanted to look over the orchard where the cameras need to be replaced after cutting down a stand of old trees. There was no one with him. The found him in the orchard after his wife was worried that he hadn't returned. He was already dead when they found him. Because that area of the orchard was getting new cameras, there was no recording of his fall. Accidental death.

Writing down his name, I put a dash next to it before recording the cause of death, just like I do for each entry. But just like I did with Ian's mark, I let my pen swoop up just a little, and then correct it. It's a small enough mark that I don't think anyone will recognize it for what it is: a record to let me know that, just like the dash has diverged off its path, the person it is with was Divergent.

Two down.

I let myself think about the concern that I have pushed to the side ever since Lisette told me about Adam.

I had almost convinced myself that Ian was a fluke, a one-off. There wasn't supposed to be anyone else here. I've been laying my plans defensively, trying to figure out how to protect the city from a threat from the other side of the fence, from people beyond Amity.

There have been two of them already inside of our faction system that I have stumbled upon. Two whom I discovered by the most illogical thing to trust: luck.

Now, it's time to plan. I can't count on luck. How am I going to find them, going forward?

Pushing myself away from the computer, I walk over to the table in middle of the room. Looking around the room, I take a mental inventory of everything that I thought I needed to protect us from the outside.

The three dimensional map on the table of our city with the fence that surrounds us standing on its surface. The plans for expanding the wall to contain Amity on it. Is that still necessary? Is Amity how they join our city?

I need to take a look at Ian's family tree. He was born Erudite, but were both of his parents? Is there an Amity connection with all of the Divergent?

The wall opposite has lists of what we need to get together to make sure we can repel an invasion like what we had when I was a child.

Frustrated with my inability to answer my own questions, my hands slam on the table, causing the fence to rock and falls in places.

The computer voice I programmed to sound like Charlotte sounds gently. "Anderson. Sixth generation, Faction of origin and selected Faction, Erudite."

Hurrying to set the fence back up so my son can't see my tantrum, I knock more of it over.

Anderson must see what I am doing, because his first words echo my thoughts. "We've been preparing for an attack from the outside. We never thought we should be preparing from an attack from the inside."

"They aren't supposed to be in here!" I feel my frustration from the past few days gathering. "Our city was designed to be a refuge from them."

"We've found two. If we have found two, there are more." Anderson again voices my thoughts, "How do we find them?"

Anderson knows me well. Giving me a problem to solve will put me back on track. "The only way I know to find them is through simulations. Everyone already takes the Aptitude Test. That's a simulation." My feet start to carry me around the room while I think.

Anderson says nothing but lets me walk and think.

"We need information from it. Erudite don't have time to administer the test, so Abnegation volunteers do that. We could have them ask each sixteen-year-old they test if they were aware during the simulation."

"How would you convince the Abnegation to ask? If they think the question is just self-serving, they won't give you the information."

My strides take me past Anderson a couple of times while I think. "How old is the test?"

"Old. Although Ian started working on a new test, that was abandoned with his death. It's been a couple of generations, at least, since it has been updated," Anderson reminds me.

Stopping in my tracks, I turn to look at him, "Updating the test after a couple of generations would be logical, and if we were looking at a new test, wouldn't it make sense for us to start with a questionnaire? It's reasonable to get information put together before we start on anything new."

Anderson smiles at me. "And since work in Serums, it would be sensible for me to work on the new serum and come up with the questionnaire."

"Devon is still department head," I remind him, "and both of you are in the Top Ten. Both of you would be on the project, at the very least, and you would certainly have input on the questionnaire. Yes, I think that is our starting point. At Wednesday's meeting, I'll bring up updating the Aptitude Test as a talking point. I won't have a lot to time to speak to you and Devon after the meeting, but we'll at least have a quick discussion about the questionnaire then."

"You usually don't plan anything after Top Ten meeting so you have time to discuss anything that might come up. What is going on?"

"Your mother is keeping something from me."

Anderson laughs but stops suddenly when he realizes I'm serious. "You have to be joking. Mother can't keep a secret, especially not from you."

"I'm pretty sure she's been keeping one about her health."

"What do you mean?" Anderson is suddenly concerned.

How much do I tell her son? The only child she still has left. "There are just some signs I've noticed about your mother lately that make me think her blood sugar is off again. She has an appointment set for shortly after the Top Ten meeting, a time she knows I am likely to miss. She doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to her doctor's appointment, even if I have to cut the meeting short, to find out if I'm right.

* * *

Diabetic Nephropathy.

The word cycles in my head along with what I have learned about it today.

Diabetic Nephropathy occurs when the kidneys are damaged by the high glucose levels in the blood. The kidneys are no longer able to remove waste products and keep a healthy balance of fluids in the body. Protein begins to get past the kidneys and end up in the urine.

Taryn has had this condition for years without telling me. She is stage four of five.

And if I hadn't come today, she probably would have been in stage five, kidney failure, before she would have told me.

How do I handle this?

The same way I wanted to handle Charlotte's cancer diagnosis. I will do for Taryn everything I couldn't do for her.

We are home before I break the silence that has been between us. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Before today, I've never noticed exactly how still my wife can be. She stands in our kitchen, both hands in front of her, right hand over left. "What could you have done, Norton? Quit your job? You don't have a job where you can cut back on hours. You are either the leader, or you are nothing. Your job means so much to the faction and to you. I don't want to see anyone else in your position because of my health. You are the leader of Erudite. You aren't a researcher like Devon where you could have reduced your hours or started working on some kind of a cure. You aren't a doctor like Patrick, where you would already know more than me about the disease and help me to navigate it."

Taryn has a strength to her placid stance. She has thought this through. This wasn't a decision that she made without giving it a great deal of thought. "I could have..." I start, but she interrupts me.

"You could have made sure I had the top doctor in the field? I'm your wife. I already have that. You could have allocated resources so that kidney disease got more funding. Far fewer people get kidney disease than cancer. The money should go to cure more, rather than fewer people."

"I could have been here for you." I say simply, knowing she can't argue against this.

She gives me a ghost of a smile. "And taken that time from what? Your sleep? Your job demands a lot from you. I've always known that. I've had Marion. She's been there for me any time I've needed her."

Looking Taryn in the eyes, I tell her forcefully, "No more secrets. No more not telling me what is going on with your health. You will tell Glynis about every appointment that you have so she can put in on my schedule."

"I don't want Glynis to..."

"Just tell her you have an appointment. You don't have to tell her what it is for. She will put it on my calendar so I can can be there."

"You don't have to."

Taking a deep breath, I calm myself a little before I respond to this. "I want to."

It's a lie. I don't want to, but I wanted to be there for Charlotte, and I couldn't.

So I will do it for Taryn instead.


	24. Chapter 24

_**(4-11-2020)**_

 _ **Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there. I'm trying very hard to finish this story up right now, but... this is the last chapter that is currently finished. I want to make sure that I wrap up all the pieces from this story and the Divergent World (and Dauntless Gray World) that it is meant to.**_

 _ **It will probably be at least a month before you see another post. I'm sorry. If I can get it out sooner, I will, but... I want to make sure all the pieces that are supposed to fit do!**_

 _ **(5-2-2020)**_

 _ **Yep, I thought I was going to get this out almost a month ago! Sorry it has taken me so long! I haven't written one word since 4/11! I'm trying to get myself back into the writing habit, hopefully getting this out will give me some inspiration! I've made myself a goal to have this finished by June so... I need to get this published and get to work!**_

 **Characters-**

 **Beverly- Charlotte's daughter, Tori and George's mother**

 **Devon- (mentioned) member of Top 10, was caught cheating at Trivia when he was younger. Jeanine's grandfather**

 **Agatha- (mentioned) emeritus member of Top 10, Jeanine's grandmother, Bea's twin sister, transferred from Abnegation**

 **Bea- (mentioned) emeritus member of Top 10 Andrew's grandmother, Agatha's twin sister, transferred from Abnegation**

 **Anderson- Norton and Taryn's middle child, Norton had him stay in Erudite, he's Ariana and Evelyn's father**

 **Adam- (mentioned) Lisette's late husband, he was killed when they discovered he was Divergent**

 **Ian- (mentioned) Charlotte's husband (making him Beverly's father and Tori and George's grandfather)**

 **Ariana- Anderson and Ilene's daughter, Norton's granddaughter (Evelyn's sister) she was chosen to stay in Erudite**

 **Lisette- Norton and Taryn's youngest child, only daughter, she was sent to Amity. She turned in her husband, Adam, when she discovered he was Divergent**

 **Charity- (mentioned) retiring leader of Amity**

 **Jarrod- (mentioned) new leader of Amity (If you have read The Blackest Shade of Gray, he should sound familiar. He appears in that story as the leader of Amity. He is Lois's husband (see Lois to see who all that makes him related to!)**

 **Lois- (mentioned) Jarrod's wife, grief counselor in Amity (Again she's in The Blackest Shade of Gray, she is... Hana's grief counselor. Jasmine's mother, which makes her Amar's grand mother)**

 **Taryn- Norton's wife, he married her because she came from Dauntless.**

 **Ilene- (mentioned) Anderson's wife, she transferred from Abnegation**

 **Renee- (mentioned) Devon and Agatha's younger granddaughter. She is also originally from The Blackest Shade of Gray. Renee is Jeanine's cousin.**

 **Chapter 24**

"You have never taken such a personal interest in assigning summer internships," Beverly accuses me.

"I'm not sure I've ever had a group quite like this one. This is the first big test of Taryn's GRAMS. If you take a look at who all is involved in it, many of them have parents and or grandparents in the Top Ten. There's Tori, your daughter."

Beverly interrupts me with a laugh. "Putting her in computers like her mother."

"You do have a knack for them, and I want to see if she does, too. Devon, Jeanine's grandfather, is still in the Top Ten, her grandmother and great-aunt are emeritus, her father is in the Top Ten, and her mother is number eleven only because Devon refuses to step down."

"Why did you put her in serums with Devon instead of computers like Agatha and Bea?"

How do I answer this one? The truth is simply that I don't trust Tori and Jeanine to keep their antagonism towards each other in check. "I already have someone from this elite group in computers, I want to spread them around."

"But you put both Andrew and Evelyn in medical."

"Medical is a much larger area then serums or computers," I remind her. "Andrew's parents in the Top Twenty. He doesn't have anyone in the Top Ten, so it isn't exactly the same."

Beverly studies me for a second. "You have something up your sleeve. I really think there is more to this than what you are admitting, but I won't ask you to explain yourself any further. I know you have more going on than you admit to any of us." She gathers her papers and starts to leave the room, only pausing at the door to deliver her parting shot. "I'll let you keep your secrets."

* * *

"They turned us down." Anderson places a sheet of paper on the table in front of me.

Looking up from the records of Adam's and Ian's families spread out on the table in my private workspace, I look at him questioningly. "They turned us…" I trail off, realizing what he must mean. "The Abnegation say we can't change the Aptitude Test?"

"Not exactly." He sits down on the other side of the table. "They have no problem with us changing the Aptitude Test. They turned down our questions."

"What?! They can't expect us to work on it without any first-hand data!"

"They don't." Anderson clarifies, "They approved many of the questions. It just happens to be that the questions they did turn down were the most important ones, and the names of the individuals who give each answer will be withheld."

Pulling the list of questions towards me, I scan them. There are questions missing. I read through each one to identify which ones are gone. Anderson is right. They took away every question that would give us get any kind of an idea of the Divergent population. It doesn't matter as much that they won't let us know the names. Although it would be helpful to know who is Divergent and who is pure, without the names, we could have at least gotten an idea of what the population is. If we ask one hundred kids and none of them are aware, then it isn't as much of a priority as if we find out that twenty of the one hundred are. Any questions that would help us know that the subject was aware during the simulation are gone.

Every single one of them was taken out.

It is almost like they know what we are looking for.

Looking up at Anderson, I point out the obvious. "Today I almost wish we had sent Arianna to Abnegation. It is going to be very important that we get Evelyn to Abnegation. I'm beginning to wonder if Abnegation knows something."

* * *

"Grandfather!" Arianna smiles as I meet her for the first time after initiation at her piece of art work. Her piece is the first one that makes me wonder if someone is in the right faction. Arianna chose a black cabinet that is shaped like a skyscraper. It is more of a sky line than just one building, but it makes me think of the Hub where those crazy Dauntless preform some of their stunts.

"Hello, Arianna. How does it feel to be Erudite?"

"Perfect! I'm so glad that you wanted me in Erudite. When you mentioned to me that you considered sending me to Abnegation, I panicked. I don't know what I would have done if you had really wanted me to go somewhere else."

"I'm glad you ended up where you wanted to be." I look over at the cabinet, wondering if she is telling me the truth or not. "Why did you pick this one?"

Her face becomes thoughtful. "It reminds me of our city. Doesn't it look a little like the skyline? I know it's not our skyline. It doesn't match up to any section I've ever studied, but I love our city, and I will do everything I can to protect it. It reminds me of why I am helping you. I want to make sure that everyone is safe."

The answer that she gives me is perfect. It is logical and thoughtful. It has nothing to do with a hidden desire to be Dauntless but rather a desire to do exactly what I need her to do.

* * *

"How are you doing?" I ask Lisette when I meet with her after Arianna.

Lisette stares listlessly at her picture. The red, yellow, and blue bullseye holds her attention more than I do today. "I'm still in shock. I'm a grieving widow, who isn't completely grieving the way everyone thinks I am. Yet, despite what he was, I miss him. I shouldn't, but I do. I think about the years that we were together, the years before those last awful days when I knew the truth about what Adam really was. Sometimes I just remember the good times and how much I loved him. I recall how he adored the children. He doted on them, on me. On those days, what I lost hits me all over again." Silent tears fall down her cheeks. "On other days, I analyze those same days, wondering what I missed, how I overlooked the hints that he wasn't pure."

Taking Lisette into my arms, I hold her while she weeps the silent tears that she doesn't feel she should have. I war with myself. Should I tell her it is all right to mourn him? Or should I tell her she should be thankful that we discovered him before it was too late? That not only are she and the children safer because he is dead, but all of Amity and the entire city are, too.

"We're better off without him." Her voice is muffled by my shoulder. "I know that, but it is still hard. Of course, no one but you and my brothers know the truth. So, it in a way it is a good thing that I am mourning him. Amity expects the show of emotion. Charity asked me if I wanted to postpone the meeting about the new leader since there had been so much talk about Adam being the next leader. She wanted to check with me to make sure it wouldn't be too painful."

"What did you tell her?" I know the leader was chosen on schedule, but I do wonder what she said about it.

"I told her that we should go on ahead, that I appreciated the kindness of letting me have a say, but that I knew she wanted to start training her replacement so she could retire as planned. Maybe it was the wrong thing to say. There were actually a few people who brought my name up in place of Adam's. If I had waited, maybe I would have had a chance."

It had never occurred to me that Lisette might be nominated out of sympathy in place of her late husband. "Do you think time would have made a difference?"

She pulls her head off my shoulder and wipes her face. "No, I think there would have always been a couple of 'sympathy' votes, but I think if we would have waited, it would have taken away the momentum that Jared had. Jared was Adam's best friend, and most people who supported Adam turned to Jared out of association. Jared's wife, Lois, and I are friends, so I am not completely removed from leadership. And Lois happens to be my grief counselor. I've been spending a lot of time with her these days."

* * *

"How are you enjoying your summer internship?" I ask Evelyn as we sit next to each other on the rooftop waiting for the Founder's Day fireworks to start.

She chews the inside of her cheek for a moment and then answers me, "I'm learning a lot. I'm not a natural like Andrew, but I'm getting better at it."

"Well, Andrew's been around medicine a great deal more than you. Most of his family has some kind of a medical job. I'm sure he's grown up hearing about it. It probably makes a difference."

"That's what he said, but he's also very smart, Grandfather. He picks up on things very quickly and seems to know what needs to be done before the doctor even asks him to do it. One of the doctors mentioned to him that they are planning on asking for him to be assigned to medical again next year. He looked very pleased about that."

Studying her reaction, I ask, "What about you?"

"If that is what Andrew wants to do, I think that would be great."

"No, I mean, have any of them mentioned they would like you back?"

Evelyn hangs her head and mutters, "No."

"Do you want to do medical?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"Oh, lots of things," Evelyn answers indifferently. "What do you think I should do?"

Looking at her out of the corner of my eye, I wonder if it will really be this easy in a couple of years. The first firework of the evening explodes as I give her a non-committal answer. It's a little early to let her know I'm planning on sending her to Abnegation. "I'm not sure, but having a basic medical knowledge always comes in handy."

* * *

"Jeanine is going to replace me." Anderson studies the waves of his painting, not looking at me.

"What makes you think that?" I ask him sharply. Anderson is number one on the Top Ten. I have been counting on him being the one to replace me ever since Edmund retired to being Emeritus and Anderson took his place.

"I'm smart, but that girl is... She's something else, Father. Have you worked with her much? I mean, one on one. Have you had much interaction with her?"

"No, most of my interaction with her has been when your mother has had her at the apartment for some kind of a GRAMS study group."

"You should try to find some time to be with her. One on one. She is unbelievable. She seems to know things instinctively, but when you ask her why she thinks that way, she doesn't tell you it is a hunch, or that she's not sure, or that she just knows that is the way that it should be. No, she backs it up with clear logic. She is able to think incredibly fast. She works out complex math problems in her head in less time than it takes me to put the problem down on paper."

Chewing on the arm of my glasses I realize this is a possibility I haven't thought of. I have counted on Anderson being the one who continues the fight against the Divergent when I'm gone. "Do you think I should retire?"

"Why would you retire?" Anderson is puzzled by my line of thinking.

"If I retire now, you would become the leader. If I wait..."

"It might be a good idea to start feeling her out. See where her loyalties lie. I have a feeling that she will be just fine with having an enemy to work against. Jeanine reminds me of Devon in some ways."

"What ways?"

"She's power hungry, like her grandfather. The only reason Devon won't go Emeritus is that he knows once he does that, his time as the leader of Research and Development is coming to an end. He doesn't want to give that up to anyone, but especially not to me."

"What does he have against you?" I can't stop myself from asking.

"You. He has never completely forgiven you for becoming the leader of the Erudite and then outlasting him. He wanted to see you fail, because you were a transfer. He actually had the nerve to make sure that I knew you weren't from Erudite during my first year in Research and Development. He thought that letting me know that you are a..."

"A what?"

Anderson licks him lip. "This is his word, not mine. Fraud."

"He called me a fraud, to my child?" My voice is deceptively soft. Inside I am raging.

"Yes, he did."

"Jeanine won't go anywhere..."

"Father, don't hold her grandfather against her. You are going to need her. She might be everything we will eventually need."

* * *

The paper hides Taryn's face from me. She's slowing down. I hadn't noticed it before, but now that I know about her kidney failure, it seems obvious to me. I need to get to work, but by the time I get home tonight she is going to be worn out. Her mind won't be as sharp. It won't kill me if I am a little late getting to work so that I can get her take on Jeanine.

"Can I get your opinion on a few things?"

Taryn's face is surprised when she puts the paper down. I've never asked her opinion on too many things. "What do you need my opinion on?"

"GRAMS. From your perspective, how do you think it has worked out?"

Taryn grins. "I think it has turned out very well. Oh, part of it is probably the children that I had to work with, but Arianna stayed and is going into the medical field. If we look at the group that will choose in two years..."

"What do you think about them?" I probe.

"Evelyn is probably doing better than she would have without the extra help. Where she will end up is a little bit of a mystery to me. Since Raymond and Lisette left us, I've watched both of our grandchildren to for signs that they might leave."

"And?" I ask her, a bit amused.

"I was pretty sure Arianna would stay. She's slightly more intelligent than Evelyn. Evelyn... She's more like Ilene. There are times I watch her, and I think she will be the one to go to Abnegation. I know it can't be easy for you to face the idea of another descendant leaving, but you need to face facts, Norton. She's not a genius like you or Anderson. She's not even smarter than the average Erudite like Arianna. She has several of Ilene's Abnegation characteristics. She offers to help. She will do what no one else wants to do, even if she doesn't really want to do it, either. She is the first one stop and help the younger children in GRAMS if they need help. You should start preparing yourself for the idea that she might leave."

"What about the other children?"

"What about them? Tori is smart. She could easily fit in and stay. You were right to put in her computers over the summer. She, like Beverly, has an aptitude them. She might leave though."

"Tori?" I ask surprised.

"She resents the time that her mother spends on her work instead of with them. I've tried to take Charlotte's place, but I think she really needed someone there that was just hers to feel like she was loved. If she leaves, there is a very good chance that George will."

"Why do you think that if Tori leaves, George will?"

Taryn laughs at me. "He's her shadow! Wherever she goes, George goes, and she lets him. They are closer than your average siblings. Especially with their age difference."

"Andrew?" I ask, trying to put off Jeanine so she doesn't realize I am really fishing for information on her.

"Andrew will stay. He's smart and with his family tree... he'll end up being a doctor. In the conversations I've had with him, I don't think he wants to deal with babies like Marion and Anthony. I think he would rather be in the ER. He wants to help people, but it's not the same as Evelyn. He's happy to do what he enjoys and if it benefits people, even better.'

"And Jeanine?"

Taryn makes a disgusted face. "She is Devon's granddaughter. Even though Jeanine's cousin, Renee, is the one being raised by Devon and Agatha, Jeanine is the one who is more like him, but not by much. Jeanine and Renee are both... manipulative. They don't mind bending the rules to get what they want. Jeanine is smart enough to figure out how to get what she wants."

"Do think she'll stay?"

Taryn laughs and then predicts, "Norton, that girl will not only stay, but she will replace you one day."

 **If you get a chance and have the time, please send me a review! Knowing there are people who want to know how this ends might help me with the inspiration I am currently lacking!**

 **Thank you!**


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